LatinNews Daily - 03 July 2024

*Hurricane Beryl, the first major storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, has wreaked devastation in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and Grenada in the southwestern Caribbean, the earliest storm on record to reach Category 5. SVG’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves reported that 90% of houses in SVG were severely damaged or destroyed, with significant roof and structural damage. According to an update from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 400 people are in 20 shelters across the island of Grenada, which has a population of approximately 108,000. It cites Grenada’s national water and sewerage authority (Nawasa) as reporting that “52% of the water systems are operational with communication still disrupted in [the islands of] Carriacou, [and] Petite Martinique, and parts of the Northern corridor of Grenada”. The international media, which is reporting that six people have been killed so far as a result of the hurricane, has cited Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell as saying that “there is no power and there is almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island. The roads are not passable, and in many instances, they are cut off because of the large quantity of debris strewn all over the streets.” Beryl is forecasted to make landfall in Jamaica with some potential impact on the southern coasts of Haiti and the Cayman Islands by today (2 July).