Santo Domingo.- Hurricane Beryl has intensified as it nears the Windward Islands, posing a significant threat with dangerous winds and storm surges, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The cyclone’s approach has led to the cancellation of the annual Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit, which was scheduled from Wednesday to Friday in Grenada.
Beryl is currently classified as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour (130 miles per hour). The latest NHC bulletin places the hurricane 125 kilometers (70 miles) east of Grenada and 165 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Saint Vincent.
The NHC, based in Miami, Florida, has issued hurricane warnings for Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Tobago. There are also tropical storm warnings for Martinique, Trinidad, and Saint Lucia. Beryl, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, is moving west at 31 kilometers per hour (20 miles per hour).
So far, the Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1, has seen three tropical storms: Alberto, Beryl, and Chris. Chris formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and made landfall in Lechuguillas, a town in the southern Mexican state of Veracruz. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a highly active hurricane season this year, with up to 13 hurricanes, including seven major ones, and a total of 17 to 25 storms with winds exceeding 62 kilometers per hour.
Source: EFE