Hurricane Beryl strengthened into what experts called an "extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm as it approached the southeast Caribbean, which began shutting down Sunday amid urgent pleas from government officials for people to take shelter.
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00:00Extremely dangerous situation that's unfolding for the Windward Islands.
00:03It's going to play out overnight tonight and early Monday morning with the
00:07extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Beryl moving quickly towards the Windward Islands,
00:12moving west-northwest at 18 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of around 130 miles per
00:17hour. Right now Beryl is centered about 250 miles to the southeast of Barbados and also 350 miles
00:23to the east-southeast of St. Vincent. We have a hurricane warning in effect for Barbados, St.
00:29Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and St. Lucia. We're expecting multiple life-threatening hazards
00:35with Beryl as it moves through the Windward Islands. We have the potential for catastrophic
00:39wind damage with the eyewall of a major hurricane moving through the area, especially between St.
00:44Vincent and Grenada, including the Grenadines. That's the area we're most concerned about
00:48on Monday morning for the eye of Beryl to be moving through. In that region,
00:53near and to the north of where the eye passes through, we are expecting six to nine feet of
00:57storm surge above normal tide levels along with devastating wave action on top of that, so that
01:03could produce life-threatening storm surge in these island areas. We really just have a few hours left
01:08if you're making preparations on Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Grenada. You want to be
01:13in your safe place by tonight and a safe place where you're going to be able to ride out
01:17this major hurricane all the way through the day Monday morning. This is the chance of hurricane
01:22force winds over the next several days and you can see the highest risk of those is between Grenada
01:26and St. Vincent, including the Grenadines. That's where we're most concerned about the eyewall of
01:30Beryl moving through early Monday morning. Beryl is going to remain a hurricane through most of the
01:35week. We could see some weakening as it interacts with land and encounters somewhat less favorable
01:40conditions over the western Caribbean, but still expected to be a powerful storm for the next
01:44several days. All of the reports throughout Grenada so far overnight indicate that we've had
01:49varying degrees of rainfall and varying degrees of wind, but there has not been any reports of any
01:56major damage as a result of the weather and so we are grateful and thankful for that. So far,
02:03it means our prayers are being answered, but the next eight hours are absolutely critical.
02:10If ever it represents perhaps the most dangerous part of this exercise, so I want to re-emphasize
02:16to our citizens that the state of emergency remains in place. It is for your own safety.