‘When the hurricane hit, I saw my neighbour’s boat lift into the sky’ – This is climate breakdown

• Location Union Island, the Caribbean

• Disaster Hurricane Beryl

Roseman Adams, a nature conservation officer and part of the island’s disaster preparedness committee, was at home on Union Island when Hurricane Beryl hit on 2 July. It was the earliest-forming category 5 hurricane on record, demolishing almost all of the buildings on the island of 2,500 people. The climate crisis is making hurricanes ever more intense and destructive.

When we started feeling the force of the wind, I saw my neighbour’s boat lift up out of his yard and head towards the sky; it spun and flipped and fell back over the bank. Then I saw trees start falling, fences breaking.

Damage caused by Hurricane Beryl on Union Island in July 2024. Photograph: J Crichlow-Augustine/International Organization for Migration/Reuters

Then, all of a sudden, I heard this loud noise at the back of my house. My neighbour’s black water tank had blown and smashed the window in what was supposed to be our secure room. I had to move my 90-year-old mother and her carer into the washroom. I held both its doors and I had to hold tight, because now the force of the wind was inside the house. My hands were tired, but I had to just hold on, for about four-and-a-half hours.

My roof was going, you would hear it crack and bang. So now my house was flooding. I had eight inches of water in my living room.

When people came out after the hurricane had passed and saw the magnitude of the devastation, people started to cry and bawl; the tears were flowing. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing – total destruction. I’m talking about 99% of the buildings here on the island demolished.

Roseman Adams, whose house flooded with eight inches of water during the hurricane. Photograph: Anette Selmer-Andresen/IFRC

We are very thankful to be alive. We were very lucky it happened in the day and not in the night. At night a lot more people would have died, simply because they could not have seen where they were going to try to seek safety.

The reality [of the climate emergency] has hit home for us now and this island is paying such a high price for it, though we have very little carbon footprint. We’re paying the price for the negligence of other countries.

Climate change is real and we experience it every day now. Hurricane Beryl has opened our eyes to the forces of nature and what is likely to happen in years to come.

Climate change has also changed what we were accustomed to: a clear and defined set of seasons. We used to know when the dry season began and ended, and when the wet season began and ended. It was easy for us to harvest drinking water and food to make sure it took us through the dry season. Now, when it’s time for rain, we didn’t get no rain and when it’s time to be dry, we get rain. So you don’t know where you are and water had to be brought in from the main island [St Vincent] earlier this year.

Hurricane Beryl pressed the reset button and has given us an opportunity to build back stronger and more prepared, but we can’t do that without outside help. We want to be a resilient island and a model for the world to use.

This interview was facilitated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

• Design and development by Harry Fischer and Pip Lev