In Hurricane Beryl’s terrible wake

George Day provides this update on Beryl’s wrath in this report for the Cruising Compass:

On July 1, hurricane Beryl made landfall on the Caribbean islands of Carriacou, Union, Grenada and Petit Martinique as a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 130 mph. Ninety percent of the homes on Carriacou and the neighboring Genadines were destroyed.

By 11 pm, Beryl had become a Cat 5 hurricane and was racing across the Caribbean toward Jamaica where it made landfall on July 3, shaving the south side of the island with the edge of the eye-wall and causing millions of dollars in damage.

Beryl ranks as the southernmost Cat 4 storm on record as it passed over Grenada and the earliest Cat 5 storm to form in the Caribbean. By Monday July 8, now a Cat 1 storm, Beryl made landfall near Houston, Texas, with winds gusting to 100 mph and delivering a foot of rain. A week later more than a million Texans were still without power.

The storm system was remarkably persistent. After hitting Houston, it carved a path through the Midwest, causing numerous tornadoes and heavy rains. It then moved northeast and brought floods to eastern Canada and Vermont. Two deaths were reported. – Full report