According to officials, at least five people have died in the highest category hurricane in the Caribbean. After wreaking havoc in the southeastern Caribbean, Hurricane Beryl moved toward Jamaica yesterday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Although it has been downgraded to a second-highest category hurricane, it is still on track to hit Jamaica with life-threatening winds, storm surge, rain and flooding, the NHC warned.

Beryl, the first hurricane of the hurricane season, developed into a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane with winds of 260 km/h, according to earlier NHC data. A Category 5 storm as high as “Beryl” has never been recorded in the Atlantic before.

Five people have already died

At least three people died in Grenada and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Another death has occurred in Venezuela. Before upgrading to Category 5, the storm hit the island of Cariaco, part of Grenada. “Within half an hour, Cariaco was flattened,” Grenada Prime Minister Dicken Mitchell told a news conference. The island is practically cut off from the outside world, with homes, telecommunications and fuel systems leveled by the winds. “We have had no contact with Cariaco for the past 12 hours, other than briefly via satellite phone this morning,” Mitchell said.