See the Destructive Impact of Hurricane Beryl in Photos
Rebecca Schneid
·3-min read
Fishermen watch their damaged fishing boats after the passage of Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fish Market, Bridgetown, Barbados, July 1, 2024. Credit - Randy Brooks—AFP/Getty Images
Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season in the Atlantic, has already broken storm records as it ravages through the Caribbean. Power lines have been brought down, homes flattened, and streets flooded across multiple southeastern Caribbean Islands. The death toll has risen to at least seven people, according to CNN.
Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada are among the countries affected. In many of these places, the devastation is widespread: on Union Island, 90% of the houses have been “severely damaged or destroyed,” according to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
The storm is not done yet, as it continues its path through the Caribbean. In preparation, a hurricane warning is currently in effect in Jamaica and officials have activated natural disaster response protocols. The Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness imposed a curfew for July 3, advising people to stay inside between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time.
Late Monday, Beryl became the earliest storm in history to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, peaking with winds of 165 m.p.h. Tuesday before weakening to a Category 4, now with 145 m.p.h. winds.
Here are photographs showcasing the destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl.
‘Hurricane-force winds, dangerous storm surge, and heavy rainfall are forecast to begin within the next few hours across the Yucatan Peninsula’ – National Hurricane Center
A historic Jamaican landmark, the Flat Bridge, was swallowed by the swollen Rio Cobre in the wake of Hurricane Beryl on Wednesday, July 3.Video from a See Jamaica camera shows the centuries-old bridge in St Catherine parish before and after it was submerged.An evacuation order was in effect on Wednesday for areas prone to floods or landslides, or near sea level, gullies, or waterways, Jamaica
The minister for the two islands in Grenada that Hurricane Beryl first slammed into with catastrophic winds had a simple message for U.N. and other humanitarian officials who asked what was needed: “Anything that would allow a human being to survive.” Tevin Andrews, who was in the devastated island of Carriacou Friday where Beryl first made landfall as the earliest category 4 storm in the Atlantic, also said when asked whether there was flat space for humanitarian workers to set up tents: “The whole island is flat.” Simon Springett, the top U.N. humanitarian official for the eastern Caribbean and Barbados, who listened to Andrews’ call and relayed his remarks to U.N. correspondents said he didn’t want to sound over-dramatic, “but the islands were really dramatically, catastrophically, catastrophically hit.”
CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa breaks down Hurricane Beryl’s possible path toward Mexico and the United States. The storm most recently made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 4 storm.
A cleanup was underway on Thursday, July 4, at a historic Jamaican bridge that was swallowed by the swollen Rio Cobre in the wake of Hurricane Beryl.Video from a See Jamaica camera shows the centuries-old Flat Bridge in St Catherine parish being cleared of accumulated debris.An evacuation order was in effect on Wednesday for areas prone to floods or landslides, or near sea level, gullies, or waterways, Jamaica
STORY: Hurricane Beryl is rushing towards Mexico's tourist hotspots, after battering the Cayman Islands and Jamaica.Around 3,000 tourists had been evacuated from Isla Mujeres back to the mainland near Cancun, while at least 100 flights were cancelled at Cancun International Airport.Authorities closed beaches in the southern Mexico town of Tulum and urged people to remain indoors, though that hasn't stopped some tourists from hanging around.“I did not know a storm was coming. I don’t watch the news so I didn’t realize it. I was supposed to fly to Belize tomorrow but I cannot go until later.”Late on Thursday Beryl strengthened again into a category 3 storm, and is forecast to cross Cancun and Tulum.Earlier in the day, coastal businesses could be seen preparing for its arrival.And the director of the US National Hurricane Center, Michael Brennan has warned of serious flooding.“And Beryl is again quickly moving west northwest where you can see the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula here. We could get some heavy rainfall, but we're expecting isolated amounts as high as ten inches in portions of the Yucatan, basically just south of Cozumel and Cancun area. So the combination of that rainfall and the storm surge in coastal areas could create some very serious flooding."The storm left behind a deadly trail of destruction across several smaller Caribbean islands over the past few days.On the Cayman Islands, phone footage shows sea rocks scattered by high waves, which breached a sea wall.While on Union Island, locals sifted through debris and destroyed homes. At least three people have died.The tally of storm fatalities in Caribbean islands including Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and in northern Venezuela, is expected to rise as communications are restored.Beryl's destructive power, coming so early in the hurricane season, shows the consequences of a warmer Atlantic Ocean. Scientists say human-caused climate change is fueling extreme weather.Weather forecasters say the storm is expected to move toward northeastern Mexico and southern Texas late in the weekend.
Hippopotamuses can become airborne for substantial periods of time, according to new research into the mammals. Research by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) found that the animals can be up in the air for up to 0.3 seconds at a time when moving fast. The findings found that unlike other land animals such as elephants, horses and rhinos, hippos exclusively trot when moving, pushing the limits of what giant land animals can do, the RVC said.
A dam in an eastern Wisconsin community has been breached, prompting people living downriver to be evacuated, the National Weather Service said Friday. The dam in Manawa along the Little Wolf River was breached about 1:45 p.m. by floodwaters, meteorologist Scott Cultice said. Manawa Police Chief Jason Severson estimated that a 50-foot-wide (15.2-meter-wide) area around the dam had eroded.
Europe is in for another summer of potentially deadly hot temperatures, with warnings of record-breaking heat waves in places such as Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.
Multiple weather warnings were in place for the Cayman Islands on July 4, as Hurricane Beryl passed to the south, bringing heavy rain, winds gusting over 70 mph and “extremely rough seas”, the local weather service said.“Widespread thunderstorms” were forecast across the islands, with “significant swells” and rough seas expected through to Friday.This footage was captured by local resident Gannon Rutty and it shows large waves hitting a pier on the East End of Grand Cayman.Deputy Governor Eric Bush said Grand Cayman had experienced “the worst of it” early on Thursday morning, and urged residents to shelter indoors until an all-clear was given. Credit: Gannon Rutty via Storyful
STORY: :: Jamaicans go hunting for crabs stirred up by Hurricane Beryl:: Hellshire Beach, Jamaica"Well when it rains a lot, crabs come up so as much, well, when we get enough rain when the water comes up crabs start (undetectable) earns up. And so we just come out enjoy ourselves and catch as much as we can.""It's my first time coming here and my first time doing this and actually catching a crab. Most people are cowards, which I'm not and I caught one, so big one me.""After the hurricane or after rain, actually, the crabs tend to come up and crab is like another delicacy for Jamaicans, you know. So yeah man, this is just our way of, "having fun" (off screen) having fun, right."The crab hunting at Hellshire Beach was made possible by the passing of Hurricane Beryl, bringing activity and community spirit to the beach.
BEIJING (Reuters) -Rows of what look like thin, white shipping containers are lined up on a barren dirt field in China's Shandong province. Filled with batteries, they form a 795 megawatt (MW) plant that can hold up to 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity - enough to power 150,000 households for a day, making it China's largest such storage facility when it was connected to the grid last Saturday. Built by Lijin County Jinhui New Energy Co, the project is part of an explosion in development of energy storage in China, which has called for even more investment in the sector to boost renewable electricity and ease grid bottlenecks.
Around 134 million people in the U.S. are under alerts as an “extremely dangerous and record-breaking” heat wave broils much of the country, according to the National Weather Service. Regions that may see temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) or much higher into the triple digits (well above 37 degrees Celsius) include nearly all of the West Coast, the southern Plains, most of the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley and parts of Florida, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service. “If it’s both humid and hot, you can’t really rely on sweat to cool you down to a safe level,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles.