Mitchell said many people on the main island of Grenada lost their homes, but the damage was worse on Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where officials were still assessing the extent of damage, particularly to the power grid and water supply.
Grenada, like other Caribbean countries, gets most of its drinking water from rainwater harvesting, where rooftop gutters feed water storage containers. Terence Smith, the country’s water chief, said the storm damage was not expected to cause immediate life-threatening water shortages on Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
“We think that’s unlikely to happen,” Mr Smith said on Tuesday. “If it’s true that the roofs of most homes have been taken off, then they can no longer collect rainwater. But many of these homes have rainwater storage that would last for weeks.”
Despite this, the recent drought has left many families on the island dependent on Desalination Plant Mr Smith said the plants in Carriacou and Petite Martinique were “likely to have been negatively impacted by the hurricane”. Under pressure Before the hurricane arrives.
Hurricane Beryl set records by becoming the first Category 4 hurricane to form in the Atlantic early this season, and then the first Category 5 hurricane. A recent study found As ocean temperatures rise, hurricanes in the Atlantic are more likely to grow from weak storms to major storms of Category 3 or higher in just 24 hours.
Mr Mitchell called Beryl a direct result of global warming and said Grenada and countries like it were on the front lines of the climate crisis. “We are no longer willing to accept that we continue to suffer significant, visible loss and damage caused by climate events and are asked to rebuild year after year while the countries that caused it and exacerbated it sit back and do nothing,” he said.
Jovan Johnston contributed from Kingston, Jamaica, and Daphne Ewing-Chow from Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
