Hurricane Beryl intensifies to category 4 storm

Government officials are pleading for people to take shelter as hurricane barrel turns towards the Caribbean. Barrel has rapidly intensified into a powerful Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour. It's not just from the wind perspective. We're expecting a very dangerous life threatening storm surge of five to seven feet above normal tide levels, nearer to the right of where the center passes through those islands with large and destructive waves also expecting three to six inches of rainfall. So a very dangerous situation unfolding for places like Barbados, St. Lucia. Vincent the Grenadines and Grenada forecast to be the strongest hurricane to hit the region in 20 years. The storm is expected to hit Barbados and the Windward Islands late Sunday night and Monday. When you get to Category 4 strength you can see things like total roof damage, roofs lifted off of homes, exterior wall collapse, trees uprooted, significant damage and a complete destruction of power lines and other infrastructures. In Trinidad and Tobago, these facilities have been designated as shelters while all inter island ferries have been canceled for Monday. This is the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season. The early timing, experts say, is unusual. The average date for the first hurricane is typically early to mid August. The waters, as we know in the Atlantic basin are, are quite warm and at near record warm levels for this time of year. So unfortunately, it's not surprising that we're getting this type of development this early in the season. This Far East barrel is now the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean and the only Category 4 storm ever recorded in the month of June. Hurricane warnings are in effect for several Caribbean islands. Grenada has already declared a state of emergency. For City News, I'm Erica Natividad.