Beryl makes landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on the Caribbean island of Carriacou in Grenada

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dangerous and extremely powerful Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Caribbean island of Carriacou Monday after becoming the earliest Category 4 storm to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record-warm waters .

Winds of up to 150 mph (240 km/h), just shy of a Category 5 storm, blew off roofs, uprooted trees and caused other damage on Carriacou, one of the islands of Grenada, and elsewhere in the southeastern Caribbean .

“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the US National Hurricane Center said.

Hurricane warnings remained in effect for Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands settled into homes and shelters. The last major hurricane to hit the southeastern Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

NBC Radio in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said it had received reports of roofs being torn off churches and schools as communications began to collapse in the southeastern Caribbean.

“Jesus Christ!” a woman screams in a video that shows tin roofs flying through the air.

In nearby Grenada, officials received “reports of devastation” from Carriacou and surrounding islands, said Terence Walters, Grenada’s national disaster coordinator. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it was safe, noting there had been “extensive” storm surge.

Officials in Grenada had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after the hospital’s roof was damaged, he said.

“There is the likelihood of even greater damage,” he told reporters. “We have no choice but to keep praying.”

As of Monday afternoon, Beryl was about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of the island of Grenada, moving west-northwest at 20 mph (31 km/h).

In Barbados, officials received more than a dozen reports of roof damage, downed trees and downed power poles across the island, said Kerry Hinds, director of emergency management. Wilfred Abrahams, the Home Affairs and Information Minister, said drones – which are faster than the crews that hunt the island – would assess the damage once Beryl passed.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Lucia and Martinique. A tropical storm watch has been issued for the entire southern coast of Haiti and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the Haitian border. A hurricane watch has been issued for Jamaica.

Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 9 feet (3 meters) in areas where Beryl made landfall, with 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15 centimeters) of rain for Barbados and nearby islands and possibly 10 inches in some areas. (25 centimeters), mostly in Grenada and the Grenadines.

The storm was expected to weaken slightly over the Caribbean Sea on a path that would take it just south of Jamaica and later toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 1.

“Beryl is forecast to remain a significant hurricane throughout its entire journey across the Caribbean region,” the National Hurricane Center said.

Officials in some southeastern Caribbean islands announced controlled power outages and warned of water outages ahead of the storm, as well as landslides and flash flooding. Schools, airports and government offices closed.

Hours before the storm hit, Barbadian Michael Beckles said he still feared the worst for his island.

“As prepared as we can try to be, there are a lot of things we can’t control,” he said. “There are a lot of homes that are not prepared for a storm like this.”

Historic hurricane

Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours — a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history and with Sept. 1 as the oldest, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

It was also the oldest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, surpassing Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005.

Beryl built up its strength from record warm waters that are warmer now than they would be at the height of the hurricane season in September, said hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.

Beryl also marked the farthest east a hurricane formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University.

On Sunday evening, Beryl formed a new eye, or center, something that usually weakens a storm a bit as it grows in the area. Experts say it is now back to consolidation.

Jaswinderpal Parmar of Fresno, California, who traveled to Barbados for Saturday’s Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, said he and his family were now stranded there with dozens of other fans after their flights were canceled on Sunday.

He said over the phone that this is the first time he’s faced a hurricane – he and his family have been praying, as well as receiving calls from worried friends and family, as far away as India.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Parmar, 47, said.

Looking ahead

Even as Beryl slammed into the southeastern Caribbean, government officials warned of a group of storms mimicking the hurricane’s path that have a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression.

“There’s always a concern when you have back-to-back storms,” ​​Lowry said. “If two storms move through the same area or nearby, the first storm weakens the infrastructure, so the secondary system doesn’t have to be as strong to have serious impacts.”

Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeastern Mexico, killing four people.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the 2024 hurricane season will likely be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast calls for up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

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Kofi Jones in Bridgetown, Barbados, contributed to this report.

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press