Hurricane Beryl moves towards Jamaica | BBC News

Hurricane Barrel, the first named

hurricane

of the season and the first of its kind on record, has made landfall in several Caribbean nations. We have heard that at least one person has died in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The number two is expected to increase. Thousands of people are in temporary shelters and without electricity the strong winds hit the islands of Saint Vincent Grenada and Saint Lucia Jamaica and Haiti mix in their path also preparing for their arrival as reported by Thomas mcna the scourge of the coast of Martinique the barrel of Herac has brought extremely strong winds, tides and heavy rain to much of the Caribbean so far one person has died and many homes and businesses destroyed thousands of people remain unmatched in temporary shelters in Barbados people have been ordered to stay home these photographs were taken by a BBC journalist in the country to film The Cricket, he says there is a feeling there, the island went calmly the last 24 hours have been really quite dramatic here we woke up yesterday morning around 8: 00 a.m. m. with this extraordinary sound of the wind howling and of course the sea level. going up and restaurants right on the beach with the water falling over them, but I think there is a real feeling here in Barbados that they have avoided the worst, other areas were not as lucky as residents in Martinque are beginning to assess.

The devastation in the end the barrel devastated everything, as you can see, it will take several days for everything to be in order again, especially at the beginning of the summer holidays. Well, we more or less expected it because 5 meter waves were expected, but still this is the first time, even during a cyclone, that we have seen the seat as rough as death, it is really the first time this has happened in St .Louis and this is what Hurrican Barrel looks like from space as it

moves

northeast across the region. Yesterday he passed through Barbados. before reaching Grenada and other smaller islands, forecasters predict it is on track to hit Jamaica in the next 24 hours, this is the earliest Category 5

hurricane

on record in the Atlantic, experts say an event like this This early in the season is extremely rare, a spark is necessary and that's all we were waiting for was a spark in the form of an easterly wave coming from Africa that formed the core of the hurricane and we expect more of them as we get closer to August and september.

Next up on Barrel's path is Jamaica, where the most damage is forecast Thomas McGill BBC News speaks to CBS correspondent Tom Hansen, who is in Montego Bay in Jamaica, right in the path of Hurricane Tom. It's always amazing to see someone before the hurricane hits a perfect scene behind you with the sea being calm with almost no wind and this hurricane is heading towards Jamaica, how are people preparing? Yes, Lucy, well, I think everyone hopes this scene stays or looks the same after this storm passes. You know, it's really just a wait and see here to see how direct it is.

Jamaica is going to take a hit, as you can see behind me, the water is clear, it's glassy, ​​this is the proverbial calm before the storm, but that's supposed to change dramatically in the next 24 hours. Tomorrow morning we expect to see the Mighty Rain, the Mighty Winds are really coming through this area. People are taking the forecast here very seriously, although they're not particularly worried right now because current projections show that this storm could degrade when it gets here, but actually that's in the air, one of the things that's so Unique about this storm is the water passing through the water here in the mid 80's.

Now I don't know what that is in degrees Celsius, but I can tell you it is very warm water. especially this time of year and that's why you're seeing these storms intensify quickly and become so unpredictable, so people are going to be monitoring this very closely. We spoke to some residents who say they are ready to evacuate if necessary. They're going to hunker down and hold on now at least that's their plan for the moment Yes, let's hope they miss the worst Tom, thank you very much for joining us from Jamaica