Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Hurricane Beryl upgraded to Category 5 hurricane

by VOA News

   U.S. forecasters have upgraded Hurricane Beryl to a "potentially
   catastrophic Category 5 hurricane" as it makes its way across the
   central Caribbean Sea.

   An advisory issued late Monday night by the National Hurricane Center
   in Miami said Beryl was carrying maximum sustained winds of 260
   kilometers an hour, putting it at the highest level of the center's
   five-level scale that measures a storm's maximum sustained wind speed
   and destructive potential.

   The storm is also carrying hurricane-force winds up to 65 kilometers
   outward from its center and tropical storm-force winds up to 205
   kilometers.

   The NHC is predicting that Beryl will reach Jamaica by Wednesday, where
   it will produce between 10 to 20 centimeters of rain in portions of the
   island, with localized totals up to 30 centimeters, which may trigger
   flash flooding in vulnerable areas.

   A hurricane warning is in effect for Jamaica, while the Dominican
   Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, is under a
   tropical storm warning. Forecasters say portions of Hispaniola could be
   hit with 5 to 15 centimeters of rainfall from the outer bands of Beryl.

   Hurricane Beryl made landfall across the Windward Islands Monday as a
   Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 241 kilometers an
   hour, striking first on Grenada's Carriacou island. Grenada Prime
   Minister Dickon Mitchell said late Monday night that Carriacou had been
   "flattened" within a half-hour of landfall, while there were also
   initial reports of destruction on the nearby island of Petite
   Martinique.

   The New York Times quoted Prime Minister Mitchell as saying one person
   was killed in the capital St. George.

   Widespread destruction was also reported across the southeast Caribbean
   in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, including hundreds
   of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed and downed power lines,
   leaving many communities cut off from the outside world.

   Beryl grew from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in merely 42
   hours, which has only happened six other times in the recorded history
   of hurricanes in the Atlantic. The hurricane is also the earliest to
   hit Category 4 status in the region. Hurricane Dennis became a Category
   4 storm on July 8, 2005.

   Beryl is the second named event in the hurricane season for the
   Atlantic. Tropical Storm Alberto hit northeastern Mexico in June,
   killing four people.

   The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned of an
   above-average hurricane season.

   Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters
   and Agence France-Presse.

   The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40
   languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people.
   Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA
   journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.