Carriacou After Hurricane Beryl

On 1 July 2024, Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the small island of Carriacou in Grenada. It was a direct hit from the earliest category 4 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. The damage caused on the small island community was devastating and unprecedented.

Eight weeks after the hurricane, Carriacou is slowly recovering from this catastrophic blow. Visitors are starting to wonder when and whether to return to the former island paradise. Bunny decided to write a blog post about the current realities on her home island, hopefully helping any undecided visitors to gain a better understanding of the current situation in Carriacou.

Please note: All the photos in this blog post have been taken after the hurricane.

Hurricane Damage

By coincidence, Bunny happened to be off-island when Hurricane Beryl hit Carriacou. She was helplessly watching things unfold online, catching headlines on international media outlets, such as BBC News and The New York Times, which never before had anything to report about Carriacou. This time it was all devastatingly sad. The Prime Minister of Grenada was widely quoted saying that “Carriacou was flattened in half an hour” but there was no footage, no direct reporting from Carriacou at all, apart from short updates from Jonathan Petramala, an independent journalist and "storm chaser", visiting the island at the time.

Meanwhile, Bunny was unable to get in touch with any of her friends on the island. The power was gone, critical infrastructure destroyed, all communications lines cut and more than 95% of the buildings in Carriacou damaged or destroyed. Maximum sustained winds of 150mph had pummeled the island for hours with disastrous effects.

Relief Efforts

Luckily, the government of Grenada was relatively quick to respond to the catastrophe, with plenty of support from the international community.

Samaritan’s Purse International Disaster Relief was one of the first organizations to arrive on the island, offering valuable assistance in the first days and weeks after the disaster. World Central Kitchen started providing free meals to the population shortly after the hurricane. Various UN agencies and NGOs have also been involved in the relief efforts, providing people with clean drinking water, hot meals, temporary shelter, building materials and other necessities.

Some relief agencies have already left Carriacou, while new kinds of assistance are expected in the future. In addition, a number of ongoing GoFundMe campaigns have been set up by individual businesses and families.

In the meanwhile, thanks to a high number of local and foreign volunteers, a lot of the debris created by the hurricane has already been cleared. However, make no mistake, still a lot remains to be dealt with.

Disaster Zone

On July 9, the government of Grenada lifted the ‘State of Emergency’ that had been declared after the hurricane. Instead, Carriacou, Petite Martinique and St. Patrick in Grenada were announced as disaster zones for the following three months. People were advised not to travel to these zones unless absolutely necessary.

Reconstruction

While clean-up and clearing work is still ongoing, the focus is now turning to reconstruction work. The government is helping with a business reactivation fund, tax waivers, loans and grants.

Many, if not most, people in Carriacou lost their homes or had them badly damaged in the hurricane. Some of these people remain in temporary shelters, some have been able to secure their dwellings with tarpaulins, some have even been able to repair their houses already. In addition to temporary shelter, tents have been supplied to people still without homes.

Many businesses are slowly reopening in Carriacou. The roads are being repaired and Grenlec is working hard to restore electricity across the whole island, with assistance from regional partners. At the end of August 2024, around 800 customers in Carriacou had had their power restored, while more than 4000 customers were still without electricity. It is currently unclear when schools will reopen.

Greenery is Returning

Despite the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Beryl, nature is already starting to bounce back. Thanks to frequent rains, landscapes have turned mostly green and lush. Even some of the trees that had looked completely dead after the hurricane have started producing fresh leaves much to Bunny’s amazement and delight.

Transportation

The Carriacou airport was reopened for passenger traffic in early August. SVG Air is operating multiple flights between Grenada and Carriacou daily, except for Thursdays.

All three ferries that operate between Carriacou and Grenada have resumed their services. Osprey runs 6 days a week, Dolly C on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Tyrrel Bay Express on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. There is no ferry service on Sundays.

Scooter rental seems to be available next to the Alexis Food Stores. Bunny has not been able to confirm the availability of any rental cars at the moment but she is hopeful that Wayne’s Auto Rental & Services will reopen in the coming months.

Available Services

Many grocery shops have reopened, including Alexis, R.S.G. Shopping Mart, Aide’s Dream and many other shops in Hillsborough. As before, fresh vegetables and fruit can be purchased in Tyrrel Bay (near Lambi Queen) on Saturday mornings.

Lambi Queen restaurant is open. Big Citi Grill and Barakena are delivering meals on order.

Las Iguanas restaurant in Carriacou Marina is open and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, including those delicious pizzas!

Paradise Beach Club is set to open in September. Hardwood Bar on Paradise Beach is already serving cold drinks. The beach itself is looking beautiful. There is a little bit of debris that still need to be collected but the sand and the sea are as inviting as ever, although the vegetation needs a little more time to recover.

Gallery Bistro is looking to open later in the autumn. Fig&Bluggoe is collecting funds to rebuild and plan to fully reopen in 2025.

Deefer Diving is planning to be fully operational by 1 September.

Carriacou Animal Hospital is operating in temporary facilities and providing invaluable assistance to the island’s animal population.

Lambi Queen has already organised boat trips, Froggy’s Reef Tours is collecting funds to be able to build a new boat and start the business anew.

Banking services are limited but available in Hillsborough. The cash machines in Hillsborough work but paying with credit cards presents a continuing challenge on the island. Even businesses that do normally accept credit card have frequent outages and revert to cash only.

The gas station in Hillsborough is operating normally. There is also a new, temporary gas station in Brunswick.

Bunny is yet to venture out to the Windward side of Carriacou but she is happy to report that Pizza Meh Heart has already been rebuilt and will be opening soon.

Where to Stay

There are very limited accommodation options in Carriacou at the moment. Mermaid Beach Hotel in Hillsborough survived the hurricane almost unscathed and is currently operating on a very limited basis.

Bunny is not aware of any other hotels accepting reservations at this point. The same goes for Airbnb options. But the situation is likely to improve in the coming weeks and months.

Beach Bums Carriacou

Bunny’s newly-opened Airbnb Beach Bums Carriacou suffered only minor damage in the hurricane. One glass door was shattered (causing havoc inside), one big tree fell right next to the tiny house (luckily not on it!) and the water collection was temporarily polluted. All these issues have now been rectified.

Consequently, Bunny expects to be able to welcome guests at Beach Bums Carriacou starting in November once the island’s disaster zone status has been lifted.

Sadly, one of the three beaches within walking distance to Beach Bums was utterly transformed by the hurricane. The beautiful Black Sand Beach has virtually no sand any longer and all the trees lining up the beach appear to be dead. People in the know say that Black Sand Beach might yet recover but Bunny is afraid this might take years. Luckily, the two other beautiful beaches within walking distance to Beach Bums survived the hurricane.

Sandy Island

Sandy Island is one of Bunny’s favourite places in Carriacou. She was able to visit the island with her kayak five weeks after the hurricane. Sandy Island was quite an arresting sight. It is still beautiful, just very different.

Most of the vegetation, including many of the palm trees, are gone. At high tide, Sandy Island is almost cut in two parts, although you can still walk across without any difficulty.

Birdlife at Sandy Island is abundant at the moment and Bunny also spotted turtle tracks in more than one place on the island. Nature seems to be claiming back its own.

Bunny has not yet been able to visit White Island or Saline Island since the hurricane, but she is told that at least the turtles at Saline Island continue to thrive, even though the coral reef was badly damaged by the hurricane.

Should You Plan to Visit Carriacou?

Yes, Carriacou needs those tourist dollars now more than ever!

Once the status of disaster zone is lifted in October, power is restored island-wide and most services are back running, there is no reason not to visit.

No doubt there will be lingering signs of the havoc Beryl wrecked on the island, but Carriacou can still be the same old charming island everybody (well, almost everybody) falls in love with. The natural world, the sea and most of the beaches are still gorgeous as ever.

And the people in Carriacou are very resilient, friendly and remain smiling despite the calamity they have faced, ready to welcome back visitors that bring much-needed employment and income to the island.

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