Category 5 Hurricane Beryl still intensifying after lashing Caribbean islands

Hurricane Beryl strengthened to scale-topping Category 5 status late Monday after it ripped doors, windows and roofs off homes across the southeastern Caribbean with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic's record warmth , and was still intensifying early Monday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic, then late in the day the center said its winds had increased to Category 5 strength, meaning winds of 157 mph or higher. Fluctuations in strength, and later a significant weakening, were forecast as the storm pushes farther into the Caribbean in coming days.

Beryl is the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin and is only the second Category 5 storm recorded in July since 2005, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said one person had died and he couldn't yet say if there were other fatalities because authorities hadn't been able to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of major damage but communications were largely down.

Mitchel added that the government will send people first thing Tuesday morning to evaluate the situation on the islands.

Streets from St. Lucia island south to Grenada were strewn with shoes, trees, downed power lines and other debris. Banana trees were snapped in half and cows lay dead in green pastures with homes made of tin and plywood tilting precariously nearby.

Beryl was still swiping the southeast Caribbean early Tuesday on a track heading just south of Jamaica and toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by late Thursday as a Category 1 storm.

It reached Category 5 strength late Monday and intensified further early Tuesday morning to 165 mph winds.

As of 2 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Beryl was about 445 miles east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph. A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a tropical storm warning for the southern coast of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Fluctuations were likely but Beryl was expected to stay near major hurricane intensity as it moved into the central Caribbean and passed near Jamaica on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. After that, significant weakening was expected.

"Remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions and do not venture out in the eye of the storm," the hurricane center warned people in the storm's path.

"Historic" hurricane

It took Beryl only 42 hours to strengthen from a tropical depression to a major hurricane — a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with Sept. 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

Beryl became the third Category 3 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic in June, following Audrey in 1957 and Alma in 1966, hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said.

"Beryl is an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane for this time of year in this area," he told the Associated Press in a phone interview. "Unusual is an understatement. Beryl is already a historic hurricane and it hasn't struck yet."

Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was the last strongest hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage in Grenada as a Category 3 storm.

"So this is a serious threat, a very serious threat," Lowry said of Beryl.

Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz.

According to CBS News weather producer David Parkinson, Beryl is the farthest east a hurricane has formed in June, and one of only two to do so east of the Caribbean, with the other instance occurring in 1933. Parkinson expects Beryl to remain south of Jamaica, and forecasts that any U.S. impacts are still at least eight days away.

Warm waters are fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.

Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 9 feet in areas where Beryl will make landfall, with up to 6 inches of rain for Barbados and nearby islands.