Hurricane Beryl hits Jamaica after heavy impacts in eastern Caribbean

Jamaica was hit by a tidal wave of water, devastating winds, flooding and rainfall on Wednesday as Hurricane Beryl grazed the island as it passed just south of the coast, claiming at least one life on the island. The Category 4 storm’s effects hit Jamaica just days after it tore through the eastern Caribbean, killing at least seven others.

Virtually every building on Grenada’s Carriacou and Petite Martinique islands was reduced to rubble after the storm made landfall earlier this week. Hospitals and marinas were destroyed, roofs were swept away and tree trunks snapped like matchsticks in the sodden earth.

“We have to rebuild everything from the ground up,” said Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.

Jamaica closed its airports and issued evacuations for low-lying and flood-prone areas ahead of the hurricane. The storm was the strongest to approach the island in more than a decade. The last time a major hurricane passed within 70 miles of Jamaica was in 2007, and it has been even longer since one made landfall.

The first confirmed death in Jamaica from the storm was of a woman who died when a tree fell on her home in the western parish of Hanover, said Richard Thompson, the head of the national disaster agency.

A rescue team was also searching for a 20-year-old man who was swept into a ravine in Kingston while trying to retrieve a ball he and his friends were playing with, said Michael Phipps, a senior police officer.

In Grenada, officials said about 98 percent of buildings on Carriacou and Petite Martinique, home to a combined 9,000 to 10,000 people, were damaged or destroyed, including Carriacou’s main health center, the Princess Royal Hospital. Crops were destroyed and fallen trees and power poles littered streets.

The natural environment also suffered greatly.

“There is literally no vegetation left on the island of Carriacou,” Mr. Mitchell said after visiting the islands. “The mangroves have been completely destroyed.”

The death toll could rise as recovery and relief efforts continue. Officials reported three deaths from the storm in Grenada, two of them in Carriacou. Another was reported in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Tuesday that three deaths had been reported in the north of that country.

In Jamaica, emergency crews began clearing roads blocked by fallen trees, debris and power poles in several flood-stricken communities as Hurricane Beryl moved away from the island. About 80 roads were affected, officials said. Many homes and businesses lost their roofs. Reconstruction efforts were hampered by continuing torrential rains and gusty winds.

Electricity was restored to some areas and Jamaicans tried to calculate their losses. The south-central parish of St. Elizabeth, dubbed the “breadbasket” of Jamaica for its role in providing important crops, was hit hard by the storm.

“We have had major damage,” said Lenworth Fulton, who heads Jamaica’s largest agricultural group. “Crops like yam, coconut, coffee and carrots have been severely affected.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said nearly 500 people had sought refuge in shelters on the island.

The hurricane also blew off part of the roof of Jamaica’s main airport, Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, which was closed Tuesday night.

Jamaica’s Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said a plan was underway to figure out how the airport would operate while the roof of the jet bridge for boarding and arrivals was repaired. The storm was expected to hit the Cayman Islands on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, bringing hurricane conditions and a storm surge of two to four feet.

In the Cayman Islands, most businesses closed their doors as residents queued for last-minute purchases and struggled to commute due to heavy traffic.

All hotels on the island had also activated their emergency plans and more than 1,000 people had already been evacuated.

Cayman Islands Prime Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said the lockdown would come into effect on Wednesday evening.

“Let’s stay calm, stay prepared, take care of each other as we face this challenge together,” she said in a news conference. “We can minimize the impact of Hurricane Beryl and protect our community if we do it together.”

But the government measures did not reassure Puspa Rumba-Marcum, 40.

“Despite what the leaders say, I’m really scared,” said Ms. Rumba-Marcum, a hairstylist originally from Nepal. “I’m not sure Cayman is prepared for this.”

Forecasters were watching closely to see if the hurricane would change intensity as it moved toward the Yucatan Peninsula. There were concerns that the storm would strengthen again as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend. It is expected to make landfall somewhere along the western Gulf of Mexico on Sunday or Monday, but its strength and exact path are still uncertain.

The Mexican government has issued a hurricane warning for the Yucatán Peninsula, which stretches from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun along the east coast.

The storm has already set records as the first Category 4 hurricane — and then the first Category 5 storm — to form so early in the Atlantic Ocean. A recent study found that as ocean temperatures rise, hurricanes in the Atlantic are more likely to grow into major storms within 24 hours.

Grenada’s Prime Minister, Mr Mitchell, said the powerful storm was a direct result of global warming and that Grenada and similar countries are on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

“We are no longer prepared to accept that it is okay that we continue to suffer significant, clearly demonstrated loss and damage from climate events and that we have to rebuild year after year, while the countries responsible for creating this situation – and making this situation worse – sit idly by,” he said.

Jovan Johnson contributed to the reporting from Kingston, Jamaica; Daphne Ewing-Chow from George Town, Cayman Islands; and Linda Straker from Gouyave, Grenada.