Bridgetown/St. George’s: Hurricane Beryl strengthened to a Category 5 storm Monday evening after lashing several islands in the southeastern Caribbean, dumping heavy rains and unleashing devastating winds. Beryl is now the earliest Category 5 storm on record in the Atlantic and has developed into a “potentially catastrophic” hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles (260 kilometers) per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
