Reports of Widespread Damage After Hurricane Beryl Batters St. Vincent

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Hurricane Beryl caused widespread damage in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday, damaging buildings, including at least one that was being used as an emergency shelter and blowing away roofs as it moved across the country.

Hurricane Beryl caused roofs to be blown away or badly damaged“We have lost many roofs in the constituency of South Central Windward,” the parliamentary representative for constituency, Saboto Ceasar told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) by telephone.

“It’s across homes, public buildings and churches,” said Caesar, who is also the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

He said that the roads were impassible in several areas and “everyone is inside and I am admonishing everyone to stay inside and ensure their safety.

He told CMC that while people had moved into shelters, he could not say how many, “but people were trickling overnight”.

In Petit Bordel on the northwest coast of St. Vincent, Roland “Patel” Matthews, a former legislator, said he could not say what impact the storm was having on the rest of the district amidst challenges making telephone contact with other villages.

“Where I am stationed, at the moment, I know several persons have lost parts of their roofs, some have lost a few sheets of galvanise,” he said, referring to the zinc sheeting on the roofs of buildings.

”The rain continues. The rain is blowing but it stops and starts every now and again, but most people, I think, are ok,” said Matthews, noting that several people had moved into emergency shelters.

“I don’t have the number at the moment,” he said, adding that people began to move into the Petit Bordel Secondary School when emergency shelters opened Sunday evening.

Matthews said he could confirm that five houses had been damaged, but noted that this was what he could see from his home.

“Several trees have fallen to the ground as well. From my vantage point, I can see on the beach some trees have fallen,” he said, adding that a large almond tree on the beach had toppled over.

“I’ve been trying to call around to get an assessment myself. The other areas, I am not sure because I have been trying to get in touch with people from Fitz Hughes..,” he said, adding it was “very strange, the sea in Petit Bordel is as calm as a pond.

“Just now, I took a video of it and sent it to someone and the person was amazed. I find it strange because this thing is blowing winds all over the place and the sea remains as calm as ever,” Matthews said, speaking from the Caribbean coast of St. Vincent.

Ovid Burke, a resident of Vermont, said he could not see very far from his home in the interior community.

“But some roofs are partially off from what I can see; fallen trees,” he said, adding that the wind was picking up again.

“It was very, very strong like between 10 and 11 (local time).It died down for a while and now it is picking up again,” Burke said.

Meanwhile Fitz Bramble, the parliamentary representative for East Kingstown, told CMC that he was standing at his back door Monday morning when he saw the roof of Bishop’s College, a secondary school in downtown Kingstown, “lift up and peel off like a banana.

“It is crazy,” Bramble said, adding that he and his family has been spared.

“We havent had any damage here except a couple of tree branches broke off,” he said, noting that he was weathering the storm along with his mother, and his son, who was visiting from Canada.

Bramble said he had gotten calls from several people and had received updates from members of his team.

“Many roofs in Sion Hill Village, Roseau, Walvaroo, Mala Village have gone,” he said, adding that he was yet to receive reports from Rockies and Murray’s Village. He said he had received one report of a man being injured.

“Apparently, his roof came off and I was told he was hit in head or something like that. It doesn’t seem to be that serious because somebody called me and asked me for the neighbour’s number to see if they could take him to the neighbour’s house.

Reports out of North Windward indicate that several houses and other buildings in Owia has lost their roof.

CMC was reliably informed that the roof blew off a section of the primary school Owia, which was housing evacuees.

Other homes and business places in the community suffered damage, three years after many roofs their caved in when La Soufriere erupted.

Much of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was without electricity from around 11 a.m. Monday.

The state-owned power company, VINLEC, had announced on Sunday that it might shut down the power supply during the passage of the storm.

Official information about the storm has become a challenge as the lack of power has also affected fixed internet supply and mobile data is loading very slowly. Further the state-owned National Broadcasting Corporation was unable to broadcast online because of the internet problems and it appeared that its free-to- air signalled had been hampered in some parts of the country.

Other radio stations seemed to have been knocked off air. In a post on Facebook earlier on Monday, the National Emergency Management Agency said it was only reachable by WhatsApp.