Point farmers feel Beryl’s wrath

Several farmers from Point Village are reeling in the aftermath of hurricane Beryl, the category 4 storm which struck Saint Vincent and Grenadines (SVG) on Monday, July 1, 2024.

“I’m not sure how I’m going to recover from this…,” Ina Nanton told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday, July 3, while standing in the yard of her home where a neighbour had just helped her and her family replace part of her house roof which blew off during the passage of the hurricane.

Nanton said not only did she lose a section of her house; her crops also have been destroyed.

“My fruits and crops affected, it will be rough because you lost crops, and it won’t grow back in a hurry…I just planted some ground nuts…,” Nanton said sadly.

She said around 12 (mid-day) on Monday, gusts of wind started to tear off a side of her roof, and rain water began pouring into her home. Soon afterwards she saw the “galvanise fly off”.

“[Hurricane] Tomas (2010) was stronger to me…but I saw roof fly off this time, about four roofs, and raised roofs also,” Nanton told SEARCHLIGHT, while noting that just as during the eruption of La Soufriere in 2021, some persons had to go to shelters on Monday.

Another Point Village farmer, Sebastian Daniel, who was nailing back on his roof on Tuesday, said his galvanize also blew off around noon while he was sitting alone inside his house.

He quickly secured his possessions and did not bother going to a shelter but is doing the repairs to the house himself.

“This blew off before during one them weather some time ago, but this hurricane was bad…I was about 18 when another one like this did hit…but this one powerful still, it blow down fruit trees- the other did, but not like this one with roofs off and thing,” Daniel said.

The farmer said he lost breadfruit, coconuts, cassava, ochre, papaya, sweet pepper, tomatoes and bananas.

Daniel, who takes his produce to Bequia to sell, said he had already reaped some ochre and had them refrigerated, but the loss of electricity is problematic and the harvest will spoil.

“This one rough,” he said.

Neil Cato, also of Point said he has become accustomed to conditions where there is no electricity and no water, so he had already prepared by filling containers with water. He said the only issue was getting your phone charged, and is sorry for fellow villagers who lost crops and roofs.

“It well rough right now, it well rough.”

The National Hurricane Center in Florida, USA, forecasts Beryl to be in the south-west Gulf of Mexico this weekend as a tropical storm.