Hurricane Beryl devastated Caribbean islands on its way to Texas

“We didn’t expect it to be this devastating,” she said Saturday, five days after the storm. “When the wind finally died down and we got outside, we realized that everyone’s homes had been damaged or completely destroyed.”

The next day, the island — and several of its neighbors — began a long journey toward recovery.

As Beryl moves toward the Gulf of Mexico and Texas this weekend, Caribbean islands already affected by the storm are faced with the task of rebuilding. With damage assessments and relief efforts underway, Many residents are coming to terms with the devastation. Some of the worst-affected areas are still in need of basic necessities: food, water, medicine and electricity.

“We’re just trying to take it one step at a time,” Ollivierre said. “Deal with what we have to deal with and move on, more or less.”

The storm, which has traveled nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, was the first hurricane of the season. Its landfall, the earliest Category 5 on record in the Atlantic hurricane season, rattled Caribbean leaders, who cited concerns about climate change and the growing need for aid.

Authorities said the general public heeded warnings to prepare as Beryl headed toward the islands this week, and said some places were spared from what could have been a more destructive storm, but many structures were unable to cope with the high winds and severe flooding. At least seven deaths have been reported in Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica. Three have been reported in Venezuela.

The storm made landfall in Grenada on Monday, devastating the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where authorities said nearly 98 percent of homes and buildings were destroyed. Parts of St. Vincent and the Grenadines were also badly affected, including Union Island, where the country’s prime minister said nearly all of the 2,500 residents had lost their homes.

Beryl then passed over Jamaica on Wednesday, weakening to a Category 4 hurricane, before reaching the Yucatan Peninsula on Friday as a Category 2 hurricane. Beryl was projected to reach the Texas coast late Sunday or Monday.

It had weakened to a tropical storm by Saturday morning but was projected to strengthen again into a hurricane before reaching Texas.

In Grenada, authorities this week had to deal with cut communications, blocked roads and limited access to fuel as they began to assess the damage in Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

While power and water supplies have been restored in the far south of Grenada, parts of the north were badly affected and still lack basic services, said resident Bernard Wilson. The government gathered volunteers on Saturday to help clean up the island, and utility workers could be seen “working around the clock,” Wilson said.

Much of the damage was reminiscent of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, said Wilson, whose home on the southern tip of the island was damaged then but spared this time. He assumed recovery could take years.

“We are dealing with the situation,” he said. “It was disturbing, but not unfamiliar.”

Global Empowerment Mission, a nonprofit aid organization, was among those bringing aid to Grenada. Its first shipment landed Thursday and another, for the Grenadines, was scheduled to arrive in Barbados on Sunday, said Michael Capponi, the organization’s president. In Petite Martinique, his team saw flattened buildings and shattered concrete homes.

“There’s not much left there,” Capponi said. “Everything will have to be redone. There are no kitchens, no bedding, nothing.”

In Jamaica, winds ripped metal roofs off homes and damaged farms and buildings. Cleanup efforts began Thursday.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness said on social media Friday that about 100 roofs had collapsed, highlighting the potential economic consequences and “human suffering, particularly for pregnant mothers and the elderly.” Although the wind and rain were intense, Holness said Jamaica was “spared with the worst of it.”

Still, the storm was “terrifying” and left people “grateful to be alive,” said Jason Henzell of Treasure Beach, an area in the affected parish of St. Elizabeth.

“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of roof damage and a tremendous amount of downed trees,” said Henzell, founder of Breds, a local nonprofit dedicated to community development. “A lot of homes are affected, a lot of churches, a lot of schools, a lot of clinics.”

On Saturday, Henzell was working to secure a generator to power the water pumping stations and coordinating with the Global Empowerment Mission. His organization had a plane landing Saturday night with supplies for the Treasure Beach area and was working to collect donations from U.S. companies for roofing and other supplies to rebuild homes, said Capponi, who was there Saturday.

With their home in Mayreau severely damaged by the storm, Ollivierre and about 10 family members took shelter in a relative’s tent for two days — a concrete building that had weathered the storm — before taking a boat to another relative’s home on the main island of St. Vincent, which was spared the worst of the storm.

On Saturday, communications in Mayreau remained patchy, Ollivierre said, and there was no electricity.

“People don’t know how their loved ones are doing,” he said.

Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, promised that the islands would come back stronger and more resilient.

“We have a lot of cleanup work to do, we have a lot of humanitarian aid,” he said in a speech posted on social media Thursday. Local aid organizations, such as We Are Mayreau, worked to house displaced residents.

Many, like Ollivierre, ended up on St. Vincent. Ferry service was resumed to transport residents between the main island and Union Island, Mayreau and Canouan.

Ollivierre, recovering from a foot injury sustained during the chaos of the storm, was counting the days until he could return.

“I miss home,” she said. “I just want to be home, I want to help.”