Hurricane Beryl Aftermath in Jamaica

On Wednesday, we spoke with a Belizean student in Jamaica just before Hurricane Beryl impacted the island with category four strength winds. We heard from Brianney Smith earlier today, following the passage of the storm. She is doing well but says that many of the main roads in Jamaica are impassable, while several homes have been destroyed. She told us about the unpleasant experience she had weathering a category four hurricane.

 

Brianney Smith, Belizean Student

“The experience was kind of scary. My shutters were not able to fully close so for me that was kind of frightening. Luckily I have my dad at home and I gave him a call. He helped me to figure out a way to get it shut. I was able to manage that. I would the say the wind and the rain rattling all of the shutters and you can hear, you cant really see outside because the rain and breeze and all kind of things were flooding the window. So, it was a scary experience and it was for hours on end. So just when you think it was slowing down a little bit the wind and the rain and everything just picked up back. The scariest part for me was when it hit nighttime and you cannot see anything outside and you hope that what is happening isn’t too devastating. It transitioned from just wind and rain to thunder and lighting and wind and rain, and it is the kind of thunder that rattles everything inside. Thank God the worst of it is over and that the damage to campus was not that great. Based on what I heard and what I have seen and the images coming into me, I have some friends from Saint Elizabeth that have been really devastated, all of, it is a coastal community, all of their wooden houses, their taches. They has up some taches and everything complete destroyed. A lot of their fruit trees, all of their roofs have just been dismantled by the storm. So my thoughts and prayers goes out to everybody in Saint Elizabeth specifically and all the other communities that have been devastated by the storm.”