Some Caribbean islands destroyed by Hurricane Beryl: Red Cross

Some Caribbean islands destroyed by Hurricane Beryl: Red Cross
by AFP Staff Writers
Geneva (AFP) July 5, 2024

The Red Cross on Friday described devastating scenes after Hurricane Beryl swept through the Caribbean towards Mexico, with St. Vincent and the Grenadines heavily impacted and two Grenada islands 'destroyed'.

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said national teams had seen first hand the life-threatening impact Beryl's rains.

The storm has left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean and the coast of Venezuela, killing at least seven people, before nearing Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Friday.

It is the first hurricane since National Hurricane Centre (NHC) records began to reach the Category 4 level in June and the earliest to hit the highest Category 5 in July.

"The severity of the damages in the aftermath of the hurricane is tangible and heartbreaking," Rhea Pierre, an IFRC disaster manager in the Caribbean, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Trinidad and Tobago.

Beryl brushed Jamaica's southern coast on Wednesday, as the strongest hurricane to hit the country since Hurricane Dean in 2007, she pointed out.

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, meanwhile, she said "the passage of Hurricane Beryl was felt across the entire country".

"It is estimated that roughly 90 percent of the Grenadine islands have been impacted."

And in Grenada, Beryl made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, "completely destroying the islands of Cariacou and Petit Martinique", she said.

"A state of emergency remains in these islands where the official count of those in shelters is still unknown and communications channels are severely limited."

"The real picture of the damage and devastation that the hurricane will leave behind will emerge in the coming hours and days," she said.

But it was already obvious that the needs were huge.

In St. Vincent, people arriving from Union Island to the mainland had "nothing but the clothes on their backs", she said, and even government shelters had been damaged.

And on Cariacou, "people lost everything", she said, stressing that a long-term response would be needed, especially to ensure that people are not left stranded outdoors as the hurricane season continues.

Pierre highlighted the significant role that climate change likely plays in the rapid intensification of storms like Beryl, since there is more energy in a warmer ocean for them to feed on.

"We cannot ignore the new reality of the climate crisis that Caribbean nations face," she said.