On July 1, hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Caribbean islands of Carriacou, Union, Grenada and Petit Martinique as a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 130 mph. Ninety percent of the homes on Carriacou and the neighboring Genadines were destroyed.
By 11 pm, Beryl had become a Cat 5 hurricane and was racing across the Caribbean toward Jamaica where it made landfall on July 3, shaving the south side of the island with the edge of the eye-wall and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Beryl ranks as the southernmost Cat 4 storm on record as it passed over Grenada and the earliest Cat 5 storm to form in the Caribbean. By Monday July 8, now a Cat 1 storm, Beryl made landfall near Houston, Texas, with winds gusting to 100 mph and delivering a foot of rain. A week later more than a million Texans were still without power.
The storm system was remarkably persistent. After hitting Houston, it carved a path through the Midwest, causing numerous tornadoes and heavy rains. It then moved northeast and brought floods to eastern Canada and Vermont. Two deaths were reported.
The most serious devastation in Beryl’s wake was on Carriacou and the neighboring islands. In recent years, concrete hurricane shelters have been built by the Grenadian government, which are kept stocked with water and food. These account for the low loss of life on the islands.
Aid is beginning to flow to the islands as they dig out and start to rebuild. But, due to the loss of all cell towers, communications and coordination between the victims and aid organizations has been difficult.
The cruising community and a group called Hope Fleet, most of whom escaped the storm in Trinidad, have been accumulating supplies to ferry north to the Grenadines. Plus, public and private aid organizations have arranged for Starlink antennas to be delivered to the islands.
While Vermonters clean up after the floods and Texans swelter in summer heat without electricity, the people of the Grenadines face years of recovery and reconstruction.
Here’s a good report on what’s going now in the Grenadines on Noonsite.
Here’s a day-by-day timeline of Beryl’s path in the Washington Post.
Here’s a source of local news at Now Grenada.
