Cat 4 Hurricane Beryl strands team India in Barbados due to airport shutdown

Barbados: The Indian cricket team is currently stranded in Barbados after the airport was shut down indefinitely with Hurricane Beryl expected to make landfall by morning on July 1 local time. This comes after the team secured a historic victory over South Africa by 7 runs on Saturday in the ICC T20 World Cup finals held in Barbados.

The airport showdown is due to the Category 4 Hurricane Beryl which is expected to pass the island anytime soon as the centre of the storm is reported to located around 80 miles off the south coast.

Team India was originally scheduled to leave from Barbados on Monday at 11 am local time (8.30 pm IST), but they had to delay their departure because of the impending Beryl.

The secretary of BCCI Jay Shah has given an official statement and said that the board is planning a felicitation for the winning team after they reach their home country. He said that like everyone, they are also stuck and after the travel plans become clear, the BCCI will think about the felicitation.

As of 10 pm on Sunday in Barbados, Beryl was visible on long-range Barbados radar returns. The system is apparently moving just north of due west. Extremely dangerous conditions exist within this still Category 4 system as it swiftly moves westward toward the Windwards.

It now appears that unsettled conditions will arrive later for both islands than forecast, perhaps sometime early morning, with a hurricane warning in effect for Tobago and an orange-level tropical storm warning for Trinidad.

As the storms nears the island nation, it is currently experiencing heavy rain fall and strong gust winds, forcing everyone to stay inside their residences.

Experts say that Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the Windward Islands in the morning.

They added that this is a very dangerous situation - potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves are forecasted when Beryl passes over parts of the Windward Islands with the highest risk of the core in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada beginning early in the morning of Monday.

Beryl is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves across the Caribbean Sea later this week.