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Hurricane Beryl has strengthened to Category 4 as it makes landfall in the eastern Caribbean.
The hurricane is bringing “potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves” as it hits the Windward Islands on Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The storm made landfall on Carriacou Island late Monday morning.
The hurricane’s sustained winds have increased to 150 mph.
The “life-threatening” storm could devastate communities throughout the eastern Caribbean. Some 400 people were evacuated to hurricane shelters in Barbados on Sunday, CNN reports. Airports in Barbados, Grenada, and Saint Lucia closed on Sunday night.
The storm has already broken records: Beryl is the earliest recorded Category 4 and the first major hurricane to reach east of the Lesser Antilles in June.
Hurricane Beryl marks the start of a notably early hurricane season, experts say. Record-warm ocean temperatures made the storm grow from a tropical depression to a hurricane in just two days.
Beryl “is rewriting the history books in all the wrong ways,” according to Eric Blake, senior hurricane specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
