Hurricane Beryl pounds Jamaica, churns toward Mexico

With winds over 200 kilometers per hour, torrential rain and rising seas, Hurricane Barrel barreled into Jamaica, it's been very bad, I mean very, very bad, hitting this eastern end first on Nicole Shirley Phillips' porch, It's raining, we have bursts of rain. the trees are down many bananas are going to fall Jamaica is used to

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reeds but not like this The barrel has arrived much earlier in the season its strength has grown much faster when we realized that this was coming towards us it was like panic like, oh Oh my goodness it's been a while since this happened to us, the storm already left a trail of havoc and death in the Eastern Caribbean damaging or destroying 90% of the homes on Union Island near Grenada to see this level of destruction .

This is almost like almost total damage or destruction of all buildings. Devastation and complete destruction of agriculture with the northern eyewall, on land over the southern parts of the island. When it hit Jamaica, even meteorologists at the U.S. Hurricane Center were surprised by the dangerous conditions. are underway now in Jamaica and will continue for the next few hours, experts say the Barrel Fury is fueled by warmer than normal temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. Our region bears the brunt of the impacts of climate change; in fact, many more

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s are expected in the Atlantic instead of the usual seven per year, forecasters say there could be as many as 12 in the coming months Sasha petk CBC News Toronto this storm is still hitting the island's south coast tonight and now there are new reports of damage.

I spoke previously with the journalist. Ricardo Brooks, who hosts a radio show with call-ins from Kingston Ricardo, you're on the air tonight, what are you hearing from your listeners about the extent of the damage? So it really matters where you are on the island, uh, those that are on the eastern sections of Portland St Thomas Island took a beating this morning, there was significant storm surge, there have been reports of damage to buildings, in fact, the main international airport here in Kingston, we have just reported that a section of the roof has been damaged. The Minister of Transport indicated that a plan will need to be implemented to ensure that the airport can open to passengers without problems.

Obviously the system would have come to us from the southeast, so those parishes took the brunt of it. hitting this morning and in your experience, how does this compare to other hurricanes? Well, I think, first of all, the response was much more coordinated. You had a clear feeling that the government took this very seriously and the state apparatus was activated. Hours before, the communication was concise and clear and, one had the feeling that the government and the state were ready, unfortunately, as in the past, hurricanes or citizens, some of them in danger zones in low-lying areas prone to flooding, they did not. take the warning seriously, so this morning we had the uncomfortable situation of elected representatives literally walking into these communities and begging and pleading with people to leave journalist Ricardo Brooks in Kingston, Jamaica, tonight.

Thanks, you are welcome.