Hurricane Beryl: Jamaicans brace for impact of deadly storm

At least seven people are reported to have died as a result of the storm as it swept through the Caribbean.

Three people died in Grenada, where it first made landfall on Monday, one in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and another three in northern Venezuela, which was hit by strong winds and flooding.

One of the islands worst affected was Union Island – part of St Vincent and the Grenadines – where 90% of homes were destroyed or severely damaged.

While Hurricane Beryl has slightly diminished in strength from a category five to a category four storm, it still had maximum sustained winds of 145mph (230km/h), according to a NHC alert issued early on Wednesday morning.

The BBC’s Nick Davis said Jamaicans had been rushing to supermarkets on Tuesday to get “as much as they could as quickly as they could” to prepare themselves and their homes for the potential devastation Beryl could cause.

“It’s all about protecting life, that’s first and foremost, but when storms blow through, property and people’s livelihoods get destroyed in the course of a few hours, that’s what scares people, that’s what worries people,” our correspondent said.