SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl began pounding the southeast Caribbean on Monday as a powerful Category 4 storm after becoming the earliest storm of that strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan nearly 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada. “It’s going to be terrible,” Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said ahead of the storm and urged people to stay indoors “and wait this monster out.
” Beryl was located 70 miles (125 kilometers) east of Grenada early on Monday, with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, and was moving west-northwest at 20 mph (31 kph). It was a compact storm, with hurricane-force winds extending 35 miles (55 kilometers) from its center. The storm had not made landfall yet, but officials in Barbados already received more than a dozen reports of roof damage, fallen trees and downed electric posts across the island, said Kerry Hinds, emergency management director.
Once Beryl passes, drones will assess damage and speed up response, said Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information. Before, it used to take two hours to receive information as crews fanned out across the island, versus seven minutes.