One year after Beryl, Farley reflects on crisis and climate

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les 

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is spend­ing his birth­day to­day look­ing back on a very dif­fer­ent Ju­ly 1—when, one year ago, To­ba­go was brac­ing for one of the most pow­er­ful storms the re­gion had ever seen.

Au­gus­tine spent his last birth­day in full cri­sis mode as Hur­ri­cane Beryl threat­ened to rip through the is­land. Now, he’s call­ing on To­bag­o­ni­ans to re­mem­ber, re­flect and pre­pare, warn­ing that cli­mate change is no longer a dis­tant threat.

“One year lat­er, To­ba­go, like many small is­land states, con­tin­ues to con­front the re­lent­less re­al­i­ties of cli­mate change,” Au­gus­tine said last night, mark­ing the an­niver­sary of the storm’s pass­ing. “Whether it’s the in­creas­ing fre­quen­cy of storms, the warm­ing of our seas that threat­ens our coral reefs, the per­sis­tent haze of Sa­hara dust, or the grow­ing in­va­sion of sar­gas­sum sea­weed, each day seems to bring a new and ur­gent chal­lenge.”

Beryl was the ear­li­est Cat­e­go­ry 4 hur­ri­cane ever record­ed in the At­lantic. It rapid­ly in­ten­si­fied in just 42 hours and was head­ed straight for the south­ern Caribbean. On June 30, 2024, To­ba­go was placed un­der a hur­ri­cane warn­ing. By night­fall, the is­land was on high alert.

Au­gus­tine or­dered the clo­sure of schools and all non-es­sen­tial ser­vices. Emer­gency shel­ters were ac­ti­vat­ed and util­i­ty crews placed on stand­by. The To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency be­gan is­su­ing con­stant up­dates. Ex­tra flights and fer­ry ser­vices were arranged, and a gen­er­a­tor was de­ployed to Shaw Park.

When the storm passed north of the is­land on Ju­ly 1, To­ba­go was spared a di­rect hit. Still, strong winds and heavy show­ers af­fect­ed east­ern and north­ern com­mu­ni­ties. Trees were up­root­ed along Arnos Vale and Ply­mouth Road. Pow­er was lost in ar­eas in­clud­ing Cas­tara, Con­cor­dia, Belle Gar­den, Good­wood and Spey­side.

Fif­teen peo­ple took shel­ter overnight—eleven in Canaan and four in Lam­beau. No se­ri­ous in­juries or deaths were re­port­ed.

In the days that fol­lowed, of­fi­cials con­firmed that To­ba­go had avoid­ed dis­as­ter. Cleanup crews cleared blocked roads and re­stored elec­tric­i­ty. The Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency record­ed over 200 re­ports of dam­age, most­ly fall­en trees and mi­nor land­slides. Some fish­er­folk re­port­ed loss­es af­ter boats were over­turned or dam­aged along the coast.

A for­mal as­sess­ment in Oc­to­ber es­ti­mat­ed the dam­age at $592,000, with 71 roofs af­fect­ed. Most re­pairs were com­plet­ed us­ing emer­gency funds.

Au­gus­tine said while To­ba­go was for­tu­nate, the storm should not be for­got­ten.

“Yet, even in the midst of these tri­als, I re­main deeply grate­ful,” he said. “Grate­ful for the un­wa­ver­ing trust that To­bag­o­ni­ans have placed in me and the young, dy­nam­ic team I lead. I am hum­bled by the con­tin­ued sup­port for our pro­gres­sive agen­da and en­cour­aged by the re­silience and hope that de­fine the spir­it of this is­land we call home. Above all, I giv­ing God all the glo­ry.”