Jamaicans are bracing for a powerful storm after battering southeast Caribbean islands

A Category 5 Atlantic Hurricane During the Breakout from the Grenadines, Dominican Republic, and the Cayman Islands. II. The Category 5 Catastrophe

The intensely powerful storm was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane Monday night, making it the earliest Atlantic hurricane of that strength on record.

The Category 5 storm still has a top sustained winds of more than 140 miles per hour. The storm killed at least six people, cut power, destroyed buildings and blocked roads in the Grenadines, as it tore through Grenada, according to Associated Press.

The NHC has a hurricane warning in place for Jamaica and all three of the Cayman Islands, where the center of the storm is expected to pass late Wednesday or early Thursday before moving over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday.

The island is expected to see hurricane-force winds and four to eight inches of rainfall, with some local rainfall totals as high as a foot. A storm surge could raise water levels by as much as five to eight feet along Jamaica’s coast.

The aftermath of a tropical hurricane: Haitian government, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

“The situation is grim,” Mitchell said after speaking with a local official on the islands. “There is no power. There is a lot of destruction on the island. Many roads are cut off because of the large amount of debris that is strewn across the streets.

It is atypical for an Atlantic hurricane to occur this early in the season. The first ever Category 4 Hurricane recorded in June was upgraded to a Category 4 storm over the weekend.

Powerful storms are becoming more common because of Climate change. Warmer ocean temperatures caused by climate change are helping to drive what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted would be an unusually intense hurricane season in the Atlantic this year, with forecasters expecting as many as 17 to 25 named storms.

The three international airports in Jamaica will be closed on Wednesday to make sure there aren’t any fires that might cause damage to equipment.

Holness said in the video that it’s important for the safety of everyone during the passage of the storm.

The country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was also hit hard, with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announcing at a press conference that 90% of the houses on Union Island — which is about 3 miles long and home to some 3,000 people — have been damaged or destroyed.

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a news conference on Tuesday that there is a chance of more deaths.

Two other deaths have been reported in northern Venezuela’s Sucre state, where authorities said another five people are unaccounted for and a total of 25,000 have been affected by heavy rains, winds and river flooding from the outer bands of the storm.

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President Biden said at a Tuesday news conference that “people in impacted islands and communities are in our prayers, and we stand by to provide assistance to them.”

The World Central Kitchen has announced on Tuesday that it has teams ready to distribute food in the region, which includes Antigua, Grenada, and St.Vincent and the Grenadines.

“My sense of what will happen is we will see enhanced rain chances Saturday and especially Sunday but I am not anticipating a hurricane to form in the Gulf and move into the central Texas coast,” he added.

People living in coastal areas should have a plan for bad weather, especially over the weekend, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

“While our carbon emissions are miniscule, our region bears the brunt of the impacts of climate change,” he added. “This hurricane further highlights the urgent need for global climate action and targeted support to enhance resilience against the escalating dangers of climate change.”

Echoing those remarks, Jamaican Senator Delroy Williams told CNN that the international community must do more to widen coastal cities’ access to climate change-related funding and improve infrastructure in low-lying areas.

Simon is native of Carriacou, so the conversation was extra personal for him.

His late grandmother’s home was destroyed, and his parents’ property was damaged, his office told AFP. He called climate change “not a tomorrow problem.”

It’s happening right now in every economy. “Disasters on a scale that used to be the stuff of science fiction are becoming meteorological facts, and the climate crisis is the chief culprit.”