Hurricane Beryl is forecast to strengthen into a powerful Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean, which began shutting down Sunday amid urgent pleads from government officials for people to take shelter.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“This is a very serious situation developing for the Windward Islands,” warned the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which said that Beryl was “forecast to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge … as an extremely dangerous hurricane.”
Early Sunday morning, Beryl was located about 465 miles (750 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados. It was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) and was moving west at 21 mph (33 kph).
Two hurricane hunters were en route to the storm to gather more details about its intensity, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Beryl is expected to pass just south of Barbados early Monday and then head into the Caribbean Sea as a major hurricane on a path toward Jamaica and eventually Mexico.
Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 9 feet (3 meters) in areas where Beryl will make landfall, with up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain for Barbados and nearby islands.
Long lines formed at gas stations and grocery stores in Barbados and other islands as people rushed to prepare for a storm that had broken records and rapidly intensified from a tropical storm with 35 mph winds on Friday to a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday.
Warm waters were fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.
