Convoy of Hope’s Hurricane Beryl Response
Georgia-Pacific Helps Clean Up After Hurricane Beryl
When you hear a name connected with a major Atlantic storm, it comes from a list originated and recycled every six years by the World Meteorological Organization.
You can see the current lists here.
A name is retired and replaced when a storm with that name causes extreme property damage and loss of life. Beryl is the second name on the list for 2024.
Beryl’s identification as a hurricane during the 2024 hurricane season connected directly to its wind speed.
All named storms are a form of tropical cyclone, a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has a closed low-level circulation.
Hurricane Beryl Historical Facts
Over the past 42 years, including the 2024 season, eight Atlantic Ocean tropical cyclones have been named Beryl, besides two more in the Australian Region and another in the southwest Indian Ocean. Six Atlantic storms never achieved hurricane status, with 2018 being the first year that a Category 1 system qualified as “Hurricane Beryl.” In 2024, Hurricane Beryl’s status as a Category 4 storm on June 30 was the earliest a storm achieved that rating in a hurricane season. As the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record in the month of June, Beryl beat out Hurricane Audrey, the previous record holder from 1957. On July 1, Beryl set another record when it reached Category 5 in record time — this is a storm system with sustained wind speeds of more than 160 mph.
So, what did Beryl’s journey look like? Early on, as a tropical depression, the system has sustained wind speeds of less than 39 mph. Tropical depressions are not given names but are tracked to determine if they are growing into tropical storms or hurricanes.
Beryl’s classification as a tropical storm and the release of its name happened late on Friday, June 28, when its sustained wind speed reached 39 mph. When that speed reached 74 mph on Saturday, June 29, Beryl became a Category 1 hurricane.
As you’ll see below, even if a tropical storm never achieves hurricane status, it can pose a threat to lives and property.
When Was Hurricane Beryl?
If you checked out the World Meteorological Organization’s list of scheduled storm names for 2024, you might have wondered, “When did Hurricane Beryl hit?” or “What year was Hurricane Beryl?”
The Category 1 Hurricane Beryl that formed in 2018 was the second named storm and the first hurricane for that year since Tropical Storm Alberto never grew to hurricane strength. Hurricane Beryl in 2024 again became the second named storm and first hurricane, with the historic distinction of becoming the strongest hurricane to develop in June and the earliest formed Category 5 storm in Atlantic history.
Where Did Hurricane Beryl Hit?
Although Hurricane Beryl in 2018 weakened before reaching any land in the Caribbean, many places in its path were still recovering from 2017’s hurricanes Irma and Maria. Beryl’s remnants brought rain and flash flooding to several islands, causing some additional damage.
Fortunately, no fatalities were reported.
At tropical storm strength, Beryl made landfall in Louisiana in 1988, in Florida in 1994 and 2012, in Massachusetts in 2006, and just south of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2000. A storm system does not have to strengthen to hurricane status for preparations and precautions to be needed.
This year, Hurricane Beryl began to impact several Caribbean islands on July 1, causing extreme damage to islands in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. More than 90 percent of all buildings on the islands were damaged or destroyed, and three people lost their lives. On July 3, as Hurricane Beryl approached Jamaica as a Category 4 storm, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the entire island a disaster area and issued an islandwide curfew from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time Wednesday. There were warnings of a 9-foot storm surge as the storm neared landfall on the island’s southern shore. Eventually, three deaths each were reported in Grenada, Jamaica, and Venezuela.
Beryl was expected to reduce to a Category 1 hurricane and then a tropical storm on its approach to Mexico, but hit that nation as a Category 2 storm. Although it was at tropical storm strength upon making landfall in Texas, it was still connected with a fatality.
If you know of a tropical storm approaching your area, be sure to follow the directives of local authorities and be prepared.
What Category Was Hurricane Beryl?
Hurricane Beryl in 2018 achieved Category 1 status, with its highest winds measured at 80 mph, in the lower range for the 74-95 mph speeds defining that level of storm.
Hurricane Beryl’s status as a Category 5 storm this year means its sustained winds have already been clocked at 160 mph.
Even when wind speeds are significantly lower, as with Tropical Storm Beryl’s 60 mph maximum in 1994, the potential for destruction and loss of life can’t be ignored.
That year, five people lost their lives during tornadoes generated by Beryl as it weakened.
What Time Will Hurricane Beryl Make Landfall?
If you research, “What time did Hurricane Beryl make landfall?” in 2018, that data will do nothing to help you prepare if you are anywhere in Beryl’s path in 2024.
With any current storm predicted to reach your region, stay up to date on weather forecasts and be aware of that specific storm’s estimated landfall. With any severe storm, don’t make the mistake of waiting until the last minute to reach a safe area.
This article will be updated as more details about 2024’s Beryl become available. Currently, Beryl is being tracked along the northern coast of South America as it moves through several Caribbean islands on an approach to Mexico.
How Many People Died in Hurricane Beryl?
- • Hurricane Beryl caused no loss of life in 2018
- • Tropical Storm Beryl caused three deaths in 1982, one in 1988, five in 1994, one in 2000, and three in 2012.
- • This year, Hurricane Beryl has caused at least 13 fatalities in the Caribbean, South America, and the United States.
With storm systems, some fatalities are defined as “indirect” when caused by flooding, tornadoes, or other weather events that feed off a named storm.
What Was the Path of Hurricane Beryl?
From earliest development to final dissipation, the path of a hurricane can stretch for thousands of miles.
On July 1, 2018, a system of thunderstorms moved off the west coast of Africa that would strengthen into Tropical Storm Beryl four days later off the northeast coast of South America. On July 6, Beryl strengthened into a hurricane.
It only held that status for a day before weakening to a tropical storm again and further lessening in wind speed as it moved across the Caribbean and far off the eastern U.S. coast. Its final remnants reached just south of Newfoundland.
In 2024, Hurricane Beryl followed an east-to-west path near South America’s northern coast through a number of Caribbean islands. It impacted Mexico before moving up to the Texas coast.
Convoy of Hope & Hurricanes
Convoy of Hope — a faith-based nonprofit with dozens of program countries around the world — is marking its 30th anniversary in 2024.
Much of Convoy’s history includes disaster response. In 1998, flooding in Del Rio, Texas, followed that year’s Tropical Storm Charley.
Convoy marks Del Rio as its first disaster response, and hurricanes continue to be an annual priority for Convoy.
Convoy of Hope Disaster Services responds to natural disasters around the world, offering help and hope to people facing some of the most challenging circumstances in their lives.
Convoy of Hope is responding to Hurricane Beryl after its landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island in the Caribbean as a Category 4 Monday morning, roaring through communities with 150 mph violent winds, intense rainfall, and life-threatening storm surge.
“This is the worst storm that I’ve been through. The wind has subsided, but the sound I am hearing is like roaring waves,” said Bishop Sonny Williams, General Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God West Indies, told Convoy.
