Preparing for the Next Hurricane Beryl: A Personal & Community Disaster Plan

Abstract

Course name Instructor’s name Assignment due date Personal/Community Preparedness Plan for Weather Disasters: Hurricane Beryl Personal Inspiration I chose hurricanes for this assignment since they cause significant disruptions and damage to property and human life in affected areas. Hurricane Beryl in 2024 is one of the most recent examples of how weather patterns can lead to disasters that threaten the health and lives of people around the world. The event caused significant levels of damage across parts of the Caribbean and the United States and demonstrated the changing nature of weather disasters. Introduction to the Event Hurricane Beryl was a tropical cyclone that began at the end of June and ended in July 2024 leaving destruction and damage in the affected areas. The Category 5 hurricane began on June 25 in the western coast of Africa before intensifying and moving towards the Caribbean Sea by July 1 (Polynting, 2024). The hurricane caused destruction on buildings in Grenada with up to 98% of structures affected in some parts of the country. It led to at least 6 fatalities and one person reported missing in Venezuela while thousands of others were affected by the resulting humanitarian crisis. It had caused damages in the agricultural and other economic sectors in the Caribbean amounting to $6.5 billion worth of crops. Moreover, Hurricane Beryl caused a major humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean with over 65,000 people in the region in need of food, shelter, and medicine during and after the disaster (Polynting, 2024). On reaching the Gulf Coast of the United States, the hurricane caused power outages affecting millions of people with over $6 billion worth of damage in the country. Houston and other parts of Texas were the most affected areas in the United States with at least 48 fatalities. Hurricane Beryl caused long-term social and economic implications on the residents of the affected areas including the destruction of the agricultural sector and disruption of critical services delivery. The event is one of the earliest Category 5 hurricanes and has significant implications on the role of climate change in causing disasters and future disaster preparedness. Areas of Content Application A hurricane is a powerful storm that forms when warm ocean air rises and it creates an area of low pressure that creates a cyclone. Hurricanes begin forming over ocean water and are historically experienced after the summers when ocean temperatures are at their highest. During a hurricane, the low-pressure area over ocean water creates fast winds as air from surrounding areas moves in creating a circular pattern (Khan et al., 2025). The cyclone follows a defined path with the speed and power of winds changing as pressure differences fluctuate. When the swirling winds reach between 40 and 70 mph, they create a tropical storm that increases the risk of damages along the path of the event. A hurricane is achieved when the winds within the storm rise to above 74 mph and increase in intensity along each category. Hurricane Beryl had winds that reached 160 mph and it became the earliest hurricane to achieve Category 5 for the past 100 years (Polynting, 2024). The atmospheric criteria for a hurricane are warm ocean water and low vertical shear wind that maintains the structure of the cyclone. The destruction from a hurricane are the storm, rainfall, and strong winds that result from the disaster. During a hurricane, the storm surge causes an extreme entry of water inland that floods the coastal areas at the path of the storm. The most devastated destruction occurs in low-lying coastal areas where the rise of ocean water leads to a significant entry of water into occupied areas. Hurricane creates floods that surge inland and cause significant erosion of agricultural land and buildings (Molder & Calice, 2023). Additionally, the rainfall and flash floods affect areas that are further inland and cause destructions on property and land. High winds are a great force of destruction for buildings that are further inland during strong hurricanes....