Caribbean Prepares as ‘Extremely Dangerous’ Hurricane Beryl Closes In

TIME

Hurricane Beryl strengthened into what experts called an "extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm as it approached the southeast Caribbean, which began shutting down Sunday amid urgent pleas from government officials for people to take shelter.

Transcript

00:00Extremely dangerous situation that's unfolding for the Windward Islands.

00:03It's going to play out overnight tonight and early Monday morning with the

00:07extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Beryl moving quickly towards the Windward Islands,

00:12moving west-northwest at 18 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of around 130 miles per

00:17hour. Right now Beryl is centered about 250 miles to the southeast of Barbados and also 350 miles

00:23to the east-southeast of St. Vincent. We have a hurricane warning in effect for Barbados, St.

00:29Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St. Lucia. We're expecting multiple life-threatening hazards

00:35with Beryl as it moves through the Windward Islands. We have the potential for catastrophic

00:39wind damage with the eyewall of a major hurricane moving through the area, especially between St.

00:44Vincent and Grenada, including the Grenadines. That's the area we're most concerned about

00:48on Monday morning for the eye of Beryl to be moving through. In that region,

00:53near and to the north of where the eye passes through, we are expecting six to nine feet of

00:57storm surge above normal tide levels along with devastating wave action on top of that, so that

01:03could produce life-threatening storm surge in these island areas. We really just have a few hours left

01:08if you're making preparations on Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Grenada. You want to be

01:13in your safe place by tonight and a safe place where you're going to be able to ride out

01:17this major hurricane all the way through the day Monday morning. This is the chance of hurricane

01:22force winds over the next several days and you can see the highest risk of those is between Grenada

01:26and St. Vincent, including the Grenadines. That's where we're most concerned about the eyewall of

01:30Beryl moving through early Monday morning. Beryl is going to remain a hurricane through most of the

01:35week. We could see some weakening as it interacts with land and encounters somewhat less favorable

01:40conditions over the western Caribbean, but still expected to be a powerful storm for the next

01:44several days. All of the reports throughout Grenada so far overnight indicate that we've had

01:49varying degrees of rainfall and varying degrees of wind, but there has not been any reports of any

01:56major damage as a result of the weather and so we are grateful and thankful for that. So far,

02:03it means our prayers are being answered, but the next eight hours are absolutely critical.

02:10If ever it represents perhaps the most dangerous part of this exercise, so I want to re-emphasize

02:16to our citizens that the state of emergency remains in place. It is for your own safety.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended