Tropical Terror: The Wrath of Hurricane Beryl

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by Rochelle | Adventuresfromelle

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 every year. Jamaica’s most devastating hurricane was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, and as a child, it’s something all the grown-ups spoke about every time storms came up in conversation. I think they were all traumatized from the lack of electricity and running water for weeks as the country grappled with billions of damages and had a delay in restoring these vital connections. Jamaicans learnt a lot about how to prepare for hurricanes since then. My first hurricane was Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and I feel foolish that I’d wanted to experience one in my child-like ignorance; now I wish to NEVER experience one again. Since then we’ve had a string of other dangerous storms such as Hurricanes Dennis and Emily in 2005, Dean in 2008 and Sandy in 2012, but Beryl has surpassed them all.

Jamaica is very fortunate. We rarely sustain direct hit with the eye of an hurricane at which it is most powerful. They say it’s due to the protective factor of our eastern Blue Mountains which weakens most storms, or maybe it’s a bit of luck, or prayer. That being said, Jamaica was hit with the outer bands of Hurricane Beryl on Wednesday July 3, 2024 and has sustained very serious damage– the extent of which is still being calculated, and the restoration of power, water and cell signal has been moving at snail’s pace. I, myself, was without power and water at home for 4 and 2 days respectively! Even now, my cell signal is still choppy.

That being said, my heart aches for the south coast of the island which has sustained the most damage. Many homes, guesthouses and shops have lost their roofs, which means that all their furniture and belongings have been ruined. Some areas are flooded, several roads were left impassable and many trees have fallen. The beautiful Holland Bamboo with its tall overarching bamboo plants– first planted in the 1700s– has been decimated. Holland Bamboo was once said to be the most photographed place in the island.

Taken from Flickr, Holland Bamboo pre-hurricane

It was so scary watching the forecast for the hurricane as it was originally projected to make direct hit. Imagine how much worse things would have been if that happened! Because of work, my partner and I got caught in the last minute rush to secure candles, dried and canned goods ahead of the storm. Working at a hospital, we were ordered to discharge as many patients as was safely possible as per our national Disaster Risk Management Act. Surely, we could not start the hurricane over our carrying capacity as we were the day before the hurricane. I had a 8-4pm shift on the day of the hurricane which was projected to make landfall by noon, and I urged my teammates to come out early to see and sort all our patients so we could leave early, and it worked! I packed to stay overnight if I needed to, but was able to make it home about half hour before landfall.

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It was terrifying to watch from my window how strong the breeze got, ripping off branches and tossing them around at high speeds– the rain was the least. After all, Hurricane Beryl was a category 4 hurricane with winds of up to  209-251 km/h. Crazy, right? Thankfully, I suffered no structural damage– just the inconvenience of disruption to power, water and cell signal and my best friend’s wedding had to be rescheduled.

Treasure Beach, one of the most affected towns

My heart aches for the south coast of Jamaica, which as you may know, is my favourite part of the island after the parish of Portland. Our south coast has been declared a disaster zone. Recovery is slated to take several months, and even now most residents are without the vital connections of power, water and cell signal one week later. But, worse off yet are our Caribbean neighbours of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. The Grenadian islands of Carriacou and Petit-Martinique have been essentially flattened.

What’s so bizarre about Hurricane Beryl is that this is the earliest category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record going back to around 100 years. Sure, it weakened to a category 4 by time it hit Jamaica, but… I have never seen any hurricane hit the Caribbean so early in the season. My scheduled post last week about “How to Beat the Heat” was timely because in it, I alluded to climate change and our unstable weather conditions in the Caribbean as a result. It’s important to acknowledge that the Caribbean & Latin America, despite contributing less than 10% to global greenhouse gas emissions, continues to bear the brunt of the brutal devastation of the accelerating climate crisis. This is wrong. Earth is starting to feel like a bad group project.

Despite contributing less than 10% to global greenhouse gas emissions, the Caribbean & Latin America continues to bear the brunt of the brutal devastation of the accelerating climate crisis.

But, my people are resilient. We survived the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and 300 years of brutal enslavement, yet we’re still here. Climate change is just another struggle to adapt to. As they say, to know where you are going, you have to understand where you have come from. So, like everything else in life, I’ll take my lessons from Hurricane Beryl and keep it moving. Going forward, I’ve realized that I need to keep a constant stock of canned foods, candles, matches, battery-operated/solar lanterns and to get more power banks. And, I’ll try to see to it that my neighbours trim the trees which surround us at the start of each hurricane season.

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Post-Beryl Jamaica

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After every hurricane/rainy season, there is an uptick in mosquito-borne diseases (dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses) and leptospirosis which is spread via contaminated flood waters. If you live in or will visit Jamaica soon, I suggest educating yourself on the signs and symptoms of these diseases so you can seek medical attention if necessary. Also, our farms have been decimated which means there will be a hike in food prices soon. Brace yourselves. Try growing what you can with backyard and indoor home gardens.

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How You Can Help

Post hurricane blooms

On a brighter note, nature seems to have done its pruning. The rivers are flowing strong and heavy; our drought is over for now. Fallen trees and branches have given way to clearer views, and my garden is flourishing from the rain. Lastly, if you would like to help the people of Jamaica, here are some reputable ways to assist in cash or kind:

‘Til next time, find Elle on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

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Rochelle | Adventuresfromelle

Adventures from Elle is a travel blog for locals & visitors who want to experience the best of Jamaica, one adventure at a time. The blog is curated by Dr. Rochelle Knight, an internal medicine specialist and published author. She began the blog in 2016 as a medical student & wants to see the world, starting with her home country. Purchase her book 'SIGHTSEE JAMAICA' on Amazon and join her in Jamaica!

30 thoughts on “Tropical Terror: The Wrath of Hurricane Beryl”

  1. Very devastating, indeed. We don’t get hurricanes here on the West Coast, so I can’t fathom just how much the damage is for Jamaica. Hope you’re staying safe out there, Elle!

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  3. Lovely Post Rochelle.

    I definitely agree with you on that child like ignorance. This is something I never want to experience again now that I’ve seen how traumatic it is.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. We are so pleased to hear from you via this blog post, Rochelle, and to find that you are safe and well and have come through relatively unscathed. We were thinking of you as the Beryl story unfolded on the UK news, and also thinking of Roger and Co at Lime Tree and our lovely host family at Treasure Beach. We’re still wondering how they fared, I am sure that at the very least Roger has been cut off by fallen trees, and we hope that a much worse fate hasn’t befallen any of them. Sending good wishes to your proud nation, its people and its neighbours.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so so much! I imagine Rodger would still be without electricity & cell signal and his road is probably still blocked, although he and his neighbours have probably already pitched in with a chainsaw or 2 to clear any fallen trees. Treasure Beach has certainly been devastated; it’s heartbreaking to see. Thank you once again for the well wishes and for reading! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Thanks very much for sharing this, Rochelle. The update is appreciated. I understand the frustration with the delay in restoring utility services; but I think people may be a bit unrealistic with their expectations in that regard. When Hurricane Sandy hit the New York metropolitan area in October of 2012, even with the much great resources of that region, it took a while for services to be restored.

    Check out this link:

    https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2012/11/restoring_power_to_hurricane_s.html#:~:text=After%20Sandy%2C%20New%20York%20utilities,West%20Virginia%20in%2010%20days.

    Here is a part of what it said:

    “After Sandy, New York utilities restored power to at least 95 percent of customers 13 days after the peak number of outages was reported. New Jersey reached that same level in 11 days and West Virginia in 10 days.”

    So if you read that carefully, it probably means it took well over 2 or 3 weeks after the storm hit for everyone to get their services restored!

    So… let hope and pray that the repair crews can do their job as efficiently and expeditiously as possible with the available resources, tools and management at their disposal… I’m sure they are just as anxious as us to go home to electricity, water, etc. up and running!

    Anyway… keep up the good reporting/blogging!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much! It’s true that restoring connections is a long process. I didn’t realize it had taken so long in New York after Hurricane Sandy. I suppose it’s concerning just because we’ve never experienced such long interruptions before in Jamaica, and it raises concern because we did not receive a direct hit from this hurricane either- just the outer bands. Our last category 4 hurricane did not cause this much interruption but perhaps infrastructure has weakened over time, and it was only a matter of time before a next hurricane led to more fallen poles and cell towers. I truly hope all the workers are safe and not too burnout restoring power to the nation. Thank you for reading!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. It sure was. The past 2 years in particular have been horrible. My phone’s weather app says things like 34 degrees but feels like 42 due to the humidity. Even for us, that heat is insane. But there’s not a lot we can do to stop climate change in the Caribbean since we’re not major culprits in greenhouse gas emissions. We just have to hope that the countries responsible will do better, and we have to learn to adapt. Thanks for reading!

      Liked by 1 person

  9. What timing after I commented ..and here is our witness blog post, Elle. Thx for updating us, the world about this. I’m glad you and partner are alive and not sick. Yes, the destruction of Holland Bamboo is so sad. It takes years to grow the bamboo trees.

    Stay healthy while you are trying to give your medical expertise. My hugs!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so, so much! 🫂 excellent timing indeed. It’s going to be painful driving to that side of Jamaica and seeing all the damage, because like you said, the bamboo will take years to regrow. But we give thanks. It seems there have been 3 deaths from the hurricane but it could have been worse. And, material things can be rebuilt and replaced, even if it may take years to do so. Thanks for reading!

      Liked by 1 person

  10. I’ve been saying, to my friends that I don’t recall Ivan being this bad and it was also category 4. Beryl was just doing too much. Being without water, light and cell service felt like I was living in the stone age. I pray we do not have another storm this disastrous. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m happy you made it through safely.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Same thing I’m thinking too! I only lost power for a few hours with Ivan and as far as I remember, the entire island had power and water restored within a week. I wish there was more transparency regarding the cause for the delay in power & cell signal restoration because surely, this isn’t Jamaica’s first hurricane and we weren’t directly hit so I wonder why is the disruption so severe. But.. I don’t suppose we’ll ever get an answer from the authorities. I hope never to get this cut off again too. Thanks for reading, and I hope you also fared well!

      Liked by 1 person

    2. It’s like the authorities kept telling us to be prepared and none of our utility companies were. It’s crazy to think that there are still so many places outside of St Elizabeth and a few other areas in the south that are still without electricity. I’m grateful that neither myself nor my family in Clarendon were badly affected.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Exactly! Funny enough, my friend’s wedding was rescheduled to Monday near Runaway Bay and there was no light or cell signal there either… major tourist area too at that. The speakers and lights were run off generator, and communication was so difficult. It felt so weird finally having my connections restored only to drive to another cut-off location a day later. Something isn’t right about the response of these utility companies this time around- I’ve heard that they’re understaffed because they pay their workers pennies and people have migrated + posts are not being filled. Not sure how true this is but it’s certainly plausible.

      Liked by 1 person

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