Hurricane Beryl has strengthened to category 4 as it heads for several islands in the eastern Caribbean.
The hurricane will bring “potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves” as it passes through the Windward Islands on Monday morning, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. This will be the strongest storm to hit the islands since 2004.
While the storm may not make true landfall, it is still expected to devastate island communities in the eastern Caribbean. Some 400 people were evacuated to hurricane shelters in Barbados on Sunday night, CNN reports.
Hurricane Beryl marks the start of a notably early hurricane season, experts say. Record-warm ocean temperatures made the storm grow from a tropical depression to a hurricane in just two days.
The hurricane “is rewriting the history books in all the wrong ways,” according to Eric Blake, senior hurricane specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves called on residents “to take this matter very seriously.”
“There are some persons who are hoping for the best, and we must all do that, but we all have to prepare for the worst,” he said.
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