The Grenadines: Before and After Hurricane Beryl

Rufus Shade Vegetable Stand, Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou, February, 2023

On June 28, 2024, the tiny island of Carriacou in the Grenadine Islands chain was ground zero for brutal Hurricane Beryl which made its first landfall here. With winds over 150 miles an hour and a deluge of driving rain, it took less than 15 minutes for this monster storm to decimate or badly damage mostly of the houses and businesses on this island of 7,000 people. Many of the other sites I have written about in earlier blog posts also received direct hits from the ferocious hurricane. In the span of an hour, this tranquil, remote archipelago of tiny islands in the southern Caribbean was transformed. Many people attribute the strength of the storm and its occurrence so early in the hurricane season to the ever increasing sea temperatures caused by global warming. As I prepare to visit my beloved St. Vincent and the Grenadines this coming February and March, I plan to post some before and after photos and video clips of the transformation and the restoration efforts.