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HURRICANE BERYL RIPPED off doors, windows, and roofs in homes as the storm pummelled the southeastern Caribbean yesterday after making landfall on the island of Carriacou.

Now upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane by the US National Hurricane Centre, it was the earliest Category 4 storm to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said one person had died.

“Beryl is now a potentially catastrophic category 5 hurricane,” the NHS said in a bulletin overnight. “Fluctuations in strength are likely… but Beryl is expected to still be near major hurricane intensity” as it moves into the Caribbean today, towards Jamaica.

“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its moves over the eastern Caribbean,” the National Hurricane Centre said.

Rick Burn takes photos of damages caused by Hurricane Beryl in Hastings, Barbados. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

Authorities had not been able to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of major damage but communications were largely down.

Streets from St Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris scattered by winds up to 240kmph. The storm snapped banana trees in half and killed livestock, with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image taken at 10:50pm EDT shows hurricane Beryl, center, as it moves across the Caribbean on Monday. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Beryl was still swiping the southeast Caribbean late on Monday afternoon as it began moving into the Caribbean Sea on a track that would take it just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula by late Thursday as a Category 1 storm.

Late last night, Beryl was located about 925 km east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 33 km ph, with hurricane conditions looking possible in Jamaica tomorrow.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

A fisherman pushes a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Terence Walters, Grenada’s national disaster coordinator, said that yesterday afternoon, officials received “reports of devastation” from Carriacou and surrounding islands.

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said he would travel to Carriacou as soon as it was safe, noting the “extensive” storm surge.

He said that Grenada officials had to evacuate patients to a lower floor after the hospital roof was damaged.

“There is the likelihood of even greater damage,” he told reporters. “We have no choice but to continue to pray.”

In Barbados, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said drones would assess damage once Beryl passes.

NBC Radio in St Vincent and the Grenadines reported that roofs were torn off churches and schools as communications began collapsing across the southeast Caribbean.

Beryl was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, beating Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on 8 July, 2005.

With reporting from Press Association and AFP