Over 1mln people in Caribbean affected by Hurricane Beryl, UN says

People inspect a flooded street after the landfall of Hurricane Beryl, in Cancun, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, on July 5, 2024. [Xihnua]

Over 1 million people in the Caribbean have been affected by Hurricane Beryl, UN humanitarians said Friday.

Some 40,000 people have been affected in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, more than 110,000 people in Grenada, and 920,000 people in Jamaica, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, citing current estimates.

As a category 4 hurricane that has claimed at least 11 lives so far, Beryl left a trail of destruction in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday, then impacting Jamaica on Wednesday. The hurricane is currently affecting Belize and Mexico.

The International Organization for Migration reported that in Grenada, the hurricane caused extreme damage to the islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique, where 70 percent and 97 percent of buildings were damaged, respectively. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 90 percent of homes on Union Island were affected, while on the island of Canouan, nearly all buildings sustained damage.

OCHA said it has deployed teams to Caribbean nations to support their response efforts, and four million U.S. dollars has been made available from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to kickstart humanitarian operations in Grenada, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

"We continue to support and work closely with the authorities, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Agency, and our partners to assess and respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl," the office said.