Hurricane Beryl, Atlantic’s earliest Category 4 hurricane, makes landfall in Caribbean [Video]

A dangerous and extremely powerful Hurricane Beryl made landfall Monday on the Caribbean island of Carriacou after becoming the earliest storm of Category 4 strength to form in the Atlantic, fuelled by record warm waters.

The hurricane had winds up to 240 km/h, just shy of a Category 5 storm, as it blew off roofs, uprooted trees and caused other damage on Carriacou, one of the islands of Grenada, and elsewhere in the southeast Caribbean.

“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters. The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

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