Beryl kills 2 in Jamaica

AT LEAST two people died in Jamaica during the passage of Hurricane Beryl between July 3 and 4, taking the total number of deaths in the region attributed to the hurricane to 11.

The storm hit Jamaica as a powerful category four and was downgraded to a category two a day later as it moved closer to the Yucatan Peninsula on the evening of July 4.

The storm moved over the Cayman Islands as a category three on the morning of July 4, where major damage was reported but no casualties.

Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela  reported three deaths each associated with the hurricane. Multiple people have been reported missing.

Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management announced the death of a 26-year-old Hanover woman, Kayon Sterling, on July 3 after a tree limb fell on her while she stood outside her home during the storm.

According to the report, a family member reportedly stumbled upon the body and called the police. Sterling was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police reported a 26-year-old man was swept away by floodwaters in Kingston on Wednesday evening and is believed to have drowned. Newsday was told the man was playing football in Trench Town, St Andrew, and went after a ball that fell into a gully.

“Divers went after him and found no sign of his body,” a source from the Jamaica Observer said.

Power also dropped, reportedly affecting 60 per cent of the population, while floods, fallen trees and debris caused significant damage, particularly in the south of the island. Some major roads remained impassable. Jamaica has also reported major losses in the agriculture and fishing sectors.

Communication was also significantly affected, attributed by Digicel to the power outages. The company said some 50 per cent of cell sites were off-air, and 25 per cent were running on generators and batteries.

On July 3, Jamaica PM Andrew Holness declared a new curfew, expiring the following morning, even after Jamaica’s Meteorological Service downgraded the hurricane warning to a flash-flooding warning.

“I convened the Cabinet virtually this evening and received reports from the relevant ministers,” Holness said.

The government issued a statement a day later, saying normal government ministry operations were slated to resume while it received status reports on the impact of the hurricane. The National Water Commission also announced islandwide water restrictions as it moved to restore water supply to affected areas, which it said included practically every parish.

Jamaica’s health ministry cautioned against carbon monoxide poisoning after three cases were reported, apparently in connection with the use of generators.

Less than a day after landfall on the southern Windward Islands, Beryl became the earliest category-five hurricane in the Atlantic basin on the evening of July 1. Its strength and trajectory have fluctuated significantly since then.

Apart from the deaths attributed to the storm, St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Canouan, Mayreau and Union Islands sustained significant damage on July 1, while Grenada territories Carriacou and Petite Martinique’s infrastructure were also flattened. PM Dickon Mitchell said 98 per cent of buildings were damaged.

Barbados’ fisheries sector has been “devastated and the livelihoods of fisherfolk will have to be rebuilt from scratch,” Caricom secretary-general Carla Barnett said in a statement on July 4.

“This is a frightening start to what is forecast to be a very active hurricane season,” she said. “The devastation to our region has brought sadness to everyone, and I extend deepest sympathies to those who lost family members, livelihoods and property.

“The severity of this hurricane underlines the urgency of our ongoing calls to the international community to take action in keeping with previously agreed climate change commitments.”

Beryl is the strongest hurricane to hit Jamaica since 2007's Hurricane Dean, which killed three Jamaicans and 32 throughout the Caribbean. It is the second named storm and first major hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season. It is also the earliest category-five hurricane on record.