By Wires. Hurricane Beryl, which has strengthened to a Category 5 storm, is setting the tone for a 'very dangerous' hurricane season, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. Beryl swept through Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines, leaving many households without power, and is expected to hit Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands later in the week.
A Category 5 hurricane under the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale brings mph winds or higher, capable of causing catastrophic damage including the destruction of homes and infrastructure. Anne-Claire Fontaine, scientific officer for the WMO Tropical Cyclone Programme, said one reason for Beryl developing so early in the season was linked to warmer ocean temperatures.
Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic, then late in the day the National Hurricane Center in Miami said its winds had increased to Category 5 strength. Fluctuations in strength, and later a significant weakening, were forecast as the storm pushes further into the Caribbean in the coming days. Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris.
Banana trees were snapped in half and cows lay dead in green pastures with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.
It reached Category 5 strength late Monday and intensified further early Tuesday morning to mph kph winds. Beryl was about miles kilometers east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph 35 kph.
