A 'big wake-up call'

More powerful storms will happen in the future.

In July 2024 the Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean and the United States gave us a glimpse of the damage that warm oceans caused by climate change will have on our planet.

Warmer oceans will extend the hurricane season as category 5 hurricanes move from happening in late September or October to early July. Meteorologists were alarmed at the speed that hurricane Beryl went from being a tropical depression to a major hurricane in a mere 42 hours. A warmer ocean also tells us that there will be more frequent and stronger hurricanes in the future.

The impact for countries that experience hurricanes will be considerable. The private forecasting company AccuWeather estimates that Hurricane Beryl will cost Jamaica $12 million to repair the 82 health facilities damaged during the hurricane.

Agriculture has also been severely affected. The Rural Agriculture Development Authority estimates that 45,000 farmers have been affected with the cost of damages estimated at $15.9 million. How will small, poor countries be able to meet such costs if they have three or four such storms every year?

Hurricane Beryl destroyed almost every home on two small islands in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Mayreau and Union. Food supplies were also badly affected.

When the hurricane hit Jamaica, Beryl was a category 4 hurricane. It was one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the country. It did horrendous damage to houses, public buildings and agriculture, which will take a long time to fix. Food shortages will be experienced in Jamaica because of the storm.

Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green, said there has been significant damage to crops including vegetables, tubers such as yam and cassava, and fruits like breadfruit, mangoes and bananas, which are popular food sources. After visiting farms in the southern part of the country, Green said that 85 percent of banana and coconut crops have been destroyed.

He said livestock and fishing were also impacted significantly by the storm winds that destroyed many fishing boats.

HURRICANE HITS THE STATES

On Monday, July 8, Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas. As a category 1 hurricane, it knocked out power for almost 3 million homes and businesses, and unleashed very heavy rain, which was responsible for eight deaths in Texas and Louisiana.

Restoring power to millions of people in Texas could take days or even weeks. In the meantime, people in that area of Texas will have no air conditioning and extreme temperatures to deal with.

Hurricane Beryl brought strong winds and rain to Houston on July 8, causing at least three deaths. Two people died because of fallen trees, but a full count of death will not be available for several weeks. Roadways were flooded and 2.2 million homes and businesses were without electricity.

Beryl is expected to cost $28 billion to $32 billion to the United States, according to the forecast firm AccuWeather. The US government announced that 7,000 crews from around the country are heading to Houston to help restore power. On July 9, the government planned to open shelters for people badly affected by the storm.

On July 9, the heat index passed 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Houston, Texas. The heat index measures how the body deals with both heat and humidity. When a person finds it difficult to cool their body, they are at risk of damaging their brain and vital organs, which could cause heart attacks or strokes. Heat is one the deadliest forms of extreme weather in the US, killing more than twice as many people each year as hurricane and tornadoes combined.

All in all, experts are clear that Hurricane Beryl, which happened so early in the hurricane season, is a “big wake-up call”, and predict that more powerful storms will happen in the future.