Hurricane Beryl is the Earliest Atlantic Ocean Storm to Reach Category Five Intensity as it Continues its Destructive Path Across Multiple Caribbean Countries
July 9, 2024
Water Mission, a Christian engineering nonprofit, is responding to the ongoing destruction from Hurricane Beryl impacting multiple countries throughout the Caribbean region, including Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and heading toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. A Water Mission Disaster Assistance Response Team has been deployed to Grenada, bringing safe water treatment equipment with the ability to meet daily safe water needs for thousands of people. Union Island, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was particularly hard hit, with the country’s Prime Minister recently sharing that 90 percent of structures, including homes, have been destroyed. Water Mission is actively coordinating water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) efforts with local government authorities.
“Waterborne diseases are a critical concern in the days and weeks after a disaster,” said Water Mission CEO and President George C. Greene IV, PE. “Water Mission’s Disaster Assistance Response Team is well versed in quickly mobilizing and collaborating with partners on the ground to bring emergency safe water as quickly as possible where it is needed most.”
Hurricane Beryl is the earliest category five storm to ever form in the Atlantic Ocean and has caused deaths and displaced thousands of people across several countries. It is expected to hit Mexico today as a weakened, yet still destructive, storm that will bring high winds and potential flash flooding. Water Mission has in-country offices in Mexico with established WASH programs. Staff and resources in the region have mobilized to help assess and respond to emerging safe water needs as they arise.
Water Mission has more than 20 years of experience responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises with immediate and long-term safe water solutions. Over the last two years, Water Mission has responded to flooding in East Africa, earthquakes in Turkey, flooding in Pakistan, cholera outbreaks in Malawi, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Water Mission’s global operations have served more than 8 million people since 2001.