Hurricane Beryl’s impact still felt in Grenada

WORLDWIDE:

Nearly a year after Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Caribbean as a Category 4 storm, communities across Grenada are still reeling from the destruction.

The storm made landfall in June 2024, devastating the tri-island nation. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described the damage as “almost Armageddon-like” at the time. On the small island of Carriacou, officials estimated that over 90% of buildings were damaged or destroyed.

Entire stretches of farmland were flattened, and infrastructure for electricity and communication was all erased.

Now, signs of rebuilding are slowly emerging. But hollowed-out buildings, collapsed roofs and dying mangroves remain, bearing witness to the storm’s lasting toll.

Some residents still have no permanent shelter. Artists Michael Alexander and Yolanda VendenDunden recalled that “The roof started to shake, and the walls caved in. Yolanda passed out,” Alexander said.

Both survived, but their home and possessions were lost. “I built up the kitchen and bathroom from what was left, so she could have some privacy. We sleep in the tent,”

Their tent offers them some privacy but fail to provide comfort from scorching heat. Farmers on the island say rising temperatures and worsening droughts are adding to the strain.

“Every year it gets harder,” said Gifford Andrew, a local farmer. “The hurricanes destroy, and the droughts finish the rest. We can barely grow anything.”

“I lost everything when Beryl hit. Now I’m just trying to rebuild, but the drought makes it even tougher. Each year, it gets worse, and I need so much more water just to keep my crops alive. It’s a real struggle,” he said.

The combination of hurricanes, drought, and coastal erosion makes Carriacou one of the most vivid examples of the climate crisis, according to local government official and environmentalist Davon Baker.

“Climate change has hit us hard. Besides the storms, we’re losing coastline to rising seas, and the dry seasons have become longer and harsher, which is badly affecting farming and food production,” he said.

Grenada’s prime minister has been calling for increased support from wealthy nations in the face of intensifying climate threats.

He argues that these countries built their prosperity by polluting the planet and should take greater responsibility for the crisis now battering vulnerable states like his own.

Last year, Grenada joined a historic case at the International Court of Justice alongside other climate-impacted nations, aiming to hold major polluters legally accountable for their contributions to the crisis.

Parallel to this push for climate justice, Caribbean leaders have been intensifying calls for reparations over the transatlantic slave trade, which saw more than 12.5 million Africans forcibly taken to the Americas.

They argue that the legacies of slavery and colonisation continue to hinder social and economic development across the region.

Now, some within the reparations movement are drawing connections between the two campaigns. Arley Gill, chair of the Grenada Reparations Commission, has said there is an “inescapable” link between seeking justice for slavery and seeking justice for climate change.

Gill contends that the Industrial Revolution is a common thread tying both the climate crisis and the history of slavery together.

He argues that the Caribbean’s current underdevelopment, rooted in the legacy of colonisation and enslavement, has left the region ill-equipped to cope with the growing impacts of climate change.

“Our climate challenges today trace back to the Industrial Revolution,” Gill said. “And that revolution in Europe was powered by the Atlantic slave trade and slavery itself.

Enslaved Africans in the Caribbean produced cotton and sugar — raw materials that were shipped to Europe, refined in factories, consumed there, and traded globally.

These industries were built on crimes against humanity. That’s why there’s an inevitable link between the call for reparative justice and the fight against climate change.”

He added, “Beyond that, the damage inflicted by the Atlantic slave trade and slavery left the Caribbean in a weakened state.

Put simply, we don’t have the resources to properly confront the impacts of climate change — and that lack of resources is largely the result of underdevelopment rooted in slavery’s legacy.”

For residents of Carriacou, where the effects of the climate crisis are felt daily, the issue is no longer abstract — it’s a fight for survival.