Oh the irony! Less than 12 hours into the official hurricane season 2024 we have a category 5 hurricane making landfall on the Grenadian islands of Petite Martinique and Carriacou causing devastation.
Extract from NASA.gov
...as Beryl was bearing down on the Windward Islands, it began to undergo what is known as an eyewall replacement cycle wherein a new eyewall forms outside the original inner eyewall then contracts to become the new inner eyewall. During this process, the storm may temporarily lose intensity, which is what happened to Beryl with sustained winds dropping to 120 mph during the early morning hours of Monday, July 1. However, before reaching the Windward Islands, Beryl completed its eyewall replacement and re-intensified before making a direct hit on Carriacou Island, about 30 miles north of Grenada, at 11:10 a.m. EDT as a strong Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds reported by NHC of 150 mph. Beryl caused widespread building, roof, tree, and electrical damage across the Windward Islands, and so far, media reports indicate it caused 3 deaths across the islands of Grenada, 3 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and 3 in Venezuela, which was impacted by Beryl’s outer rainbands.
After quickly exiting the Windward Islands, Beryl continued to encounter favorable ocean temperatures and atmospheric conditions and intensified even more, becoming a Category 5 hurricane at 11:00 p.m. EDT with sustained winds reported by NHC of 160 mph and breaking yet another historical record as the earliest Category 5 storm ever observed in the Atlantic basin. Beryl would go on to reach a peak intensity of 165 mph sustained winds at 2:00 a.m. EDT, July 2, in the eastern Caribbean, which it maintained until later that morning when it finally began to lose some strength because of increasing wind shear. By 11:00 p.m. EDT, Beryl’s sustained winds had dropped to 150 mph, though Beryl remained a powerful Category 4 storm as it headed west northwestward towards Jamaica.
In the early hours of the morning I'm lying awake listening to silence, very much the calm before the storm. I'm glad we are here together, but still worried about Jackster and hoping everything will be OK. It is a feeling of kismet.
The first rain drops fall on the tin roof before dawn with the first winds gently increasing until it is torrential by 9am. Our window looks out over Spice Island boat yard and across to the higher elevations of Lance aux Epines which are good visual indications of wind speeds. The palm trees are bending over, the windexes of the boats in the yard are spinning, but all the boats are held solid. I watch one bimini shred. So far we still have electricity to boil a kettle for tea, to get internet and water for showers. The power and water are switched off less than an hour later to preserve the services for later.
From herein to 3pm we are living in a bubble, watching the weather and waiting for the storm to pass. From what we can see it looks like a bad tropical storm passing; strong winds though no damage to buildings or boats, only some branches have been torn off. Here we are relaxing in the novelty of an oversize chair.
By 3 o'clock the winds have dropped to under 15kts and the rain has eased. Then the AC in the room comes on indicating we have power and that Grenada main island was lucky. We have internet too and start picking up messages on FB on what has happened. This is when we are first aware of the devastating impact of Beryl on Carriacou, and selfishly, that PLM is unaffected.
Although there is still a State of Emergency curfew in place David has to get back to the marina to check on Jackster (and to run the generator) and sets off to walk the 4 miles. He got halfway and as cars appeared put out his thumb and was offered a lift. The kindness of the Grenadians is amazing. The man who gave David a lift was on his way to check on his elderly Mum; they stopped at her house first and then dropped David off at the marina before going back.
David's first sight of the marina was absolute relief – there is no damage here apart from some strewn vegetation, no damage to boats or buildings, no damage to the docks from storm surge. We have been so lucky. Some people did stay on board and reported winds in here in the lagoon of no more than 42 knots / 48mph. At the airport 5 miles south they recorded gusts of 110mph and on Carriacou 30 miles north it was 165 mph. We dodged the bullet by less than 20 miles (the north end of Grenada was hit badly) and by being in a protected marina.
A boat along the dock kindly lets David use his Starlink so he can message me at the apartment that all is well. I reply great and that I'll try to get a lift back with Polly and the bags. The security guard at Cool Runnings is due to finish his shift at 6 o'clock and assures me it is not out of his way to drop me off.
Polly's happy to be home and so am I. Jackster is looking so clean after all the rain, as if nothing has happened.
The marina cats were in need of a feed that evening...
No comments:
Post a Comment