In Martinique, people dig in the mud after the passage of Hurricane Beryl

On July 1, 2024, Hurricane Beryl hit the Caribbean.Inhabitants and experts agree on defining it as the most intense hurricane that has ever occurred in this area.The impact of the climate crisis is here too.

Giant palm leaves lie limp in the manicured gardens.Colorful petals are scattered on the streets and on the roofs of houses. The beach is no longer there, on the other hand the sand entered the rooms and courtyards, mixed with algae and rubbish.Martinique, the island of flowers, is covered in mud.And she was one of the luckiest:the'Hurricane Beryl he just touched her.The monster, declared category 4 when it hit the ground on Monday July 1, 2024.It then became di category 5, the most dangerous, practically razed the islands of Grenada and Carriacou to the ground.The latter according to theNhc, the US Hurricane Observation Center, found itself right in the eye of the storm and in just over half an hour together with the nearby Petite Martinique its buildings have been uncovered, streets and squares flooded, the coastlines chewed up and spat out by the ocean in shreds of boats, cars, bricks, furniture and tree trunks.

According to what was declared by the prime minister of Saint Vincent Ralph Gonsalves, on his island hundreds of public and private buildings are seriously damaged and as many as 90 percent of the homes on small Union Island have been destroyed.The Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Martinique, although not having been affected with the same intensity, also suffered extensive damage both on land and at sea.Numerous fishing boats and fishing vessels have sunk, in Barbados 20 percent of those in the nation, he states the prime minister Mia Mottley, jeopardizing a fundamental pillar of the economy of these islands. Myriane Maceno-Panevel, director of marine policies of Espace Sud, the public body for inter-municipal cooperation in Martinique, regretfully explains how many fishermen on the island lost their boats and in most cases also all their fishing equipment, which was on board or in warehouses along the coast:“It's their life, the boat is the means with which they work and earn their living”.And so it is with the bars, restaurants and shops that locals had along the Caribbean coast, which could not resist the violence of the waves.

“Hurricanes happen here often, but we've never seen anything like this.I've lived here for 65 years and no, never. Never so much damage” a gentleman shouts to me.Everyone nods, no one takes their hands off the shovel.Sainte-Luce is one of the most affected towns on the island, together with Le Diamant and Sainte-Anne.The sight that appears as soon as you pass the last bend before the town center is painful.

A family is shoveling, standing over mountains of dirt and algae that reach the building's windows.A car is completely buried nearby, the last of your priorities when you have a house you would like to return to as soon as possible.What is left of the furniture is piled up on the other side of the block, towards the mountain, inside the bins for what fits there and everything else next to it, in large piles of rubble.

“What do you want to know?” A boy shouts at me when I ask him to tell me what he saw "there were waves meters high, higher than the roofs, and in fact they went over the roofs, and we couldn't do anything about it".
“Even the boats:we were there, helpless, watching our lives disappear."
“And we were lucky, because we are all alive.We were lucky" says a lady, as she digs a drainage channel among the mountains of sand, in an attempt to drain the water from the house.

The boy, Jordan, is 28 years old and also claims not to be never seen anything like it throughout your life.He shows me the building they are trying to vacate:“This is where we started, the sand reached there” he says indicating the height of the window “and I dug from the balcony”.A day of work for the whole family, including friends and relatives, and finally the first room is completely empty:walls, ceiling, “a miracle it stayed up!” they tell me, and a light layer of damp sand covering the floor.“It's a shame that all the others are still missing” sighs Jordan, leaning on the shovel.

A little girl rests for a moment on a mountain of sand, someone brings some water, someone turns on some happy music, sweat drips down their faces and on our backs and we move forward.“We'll start again” says Jordan “what else do you want to do?But not everyone can afford it.I mean starting over.And then they say that it will happen again and more often... so how will it be done?I don't even want to think about it."

They are one of dozens of families who work along the coast of the island to save what remains of houses, warehouses, restaurants and shops.Some scream in despair, some talk, some toast the arrival of a bulldozer, some cry, some celebrate for having managed to finish a small piece of the work.“Waves this high..”, “no, I've never seen anything like this”, “yes, there are hurricanes, nothing like this has happened before”, “help?Imagine, help yourself, heaven helps you", "and it's only the beginning", "the sea reached there, you see, beyond the roof", "no, our elders say that it has never happened like this", "the boat it's broken, there's no point in digging there now", "never in my whole life" "maybe if we throw all this sand back into the sea we can even redo the beach...".

Anger, anguish and determination mix in that community spirit that water, shovels and mud can create.Everyone faces their own problems, but everyone reiterates that a hurricane like this has never been seen in Martinique.And also experts agree with Jordan, Maryane and the elders:according to data from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recorded since 1851, Beryl is the most intense hurricane that has ever hit these islands, the Windward, at the extreme east of the Caribbean Sea.

The hurricane of records

Category 5 is the most dangerous on the scale, for which 'catastrophic damage' to people, things and territories is expected.Beryl, the hurricane of records, is also the first of this intensity to manifest itself in the Atlantic so early in the season, due to exceptionally warm ocean waters, which usually do not reach similar temperatures before September.The hurricane expert Jim Kossin in oneinterview released to CNN explains that the impact of the climate crisis was decisive, because the water temperature was already as high in June as it was during the peak of the hurricane season.It was for this reason that Beryl, who like every hurricane does not read our calendar but it forms and intensifies based on environmental conditions where he is, “he mistook June for September” and became the monster which he has become.Jouel Henry, municipal councilor for the town of Sainte-Luce, traces the damage to property and people, including damaged buildings and infrastructure, electricity and traffic problems.He has a white mustache that stands out against his dark skin and a bright smile.He is aware, like almost all of his fellow citizens, of the West's responsibilities regarding what is happening here, on the other side of the world.

Europe must remember us not only when it is time to go on holiday.Because here we risk seeing entire nations disappear among the waves.But in the meantime we're getting busy, we're certainly not waiting.We will start again and you will see that we will make our beautiful island flourish again.And we will do it for you too, so that you can find it in all its splendor.

Jouel Henry

While Beryl walks forward threateningly towards Jamaica and everyone hopes that it will lose some of its violence before getting there, in Martinique and the nearby islands there is great work being done: buckets, shovels, rakes, carts and wheelbarrows.Despite the oppressive heat, the showers of rain and the gusts of wind, the last remnants of the now distant hurricane, we work hard.Young and old, men and women, friends and enemies walk back and forth, some barefoot, some wearing boots, it doesn't matter, the important thing is to walk, because it is precisely in the mud that the deepest footprints are left.