STORY: The eastern Carribbean was bracing for the unusually early category 4 hurricane Beryl as it raced toward them Sunday.

Shops in St Vincent were being boarded up while residents packed petrol stations to fill up their cars,

while a hundred miles to the east in Barbados, shoppers were rushing to stock up at this supermarket in Bridgetown.

Beryl has already made history as the earliest category 4 hurricane on record, and its expected to bring life-threatening winds and flash floods to the islands on Monday.

Justina is a manager at a hardware store in Bridgetown:

"Well we opened about half an hour earlier this morning to accommodate the rush. They have been buying generators, 5-pound buckets, everything you can think about, they're getting. We're almost out of - you can see- search lights, extension cords, ladder, tape. Whatever they can get their hands on, they're getting."

:: CSU/CIRA & NOAA

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the hurricane was located about 250 miles southeast of Barbados

on Sunday afternoon, with winds of 130 mph.

It is rare for a major hurricane to appear this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from the start of June to the end of November.

A Category 4 storm is the second-strongest level on a five-step scale.

Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Center, says a storm of that strength can be destructive:

:: National Hurricane Center

"When you get to Category four strength, you can see things like total roof damage, roofs lifted off of homes, exterior wall collapse, trees uprooted, significant damage and complete destruction of power lines and other infrastructure."

:: NOAA

In May, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted

above-normal Atlantic hurricane activity for 2024 due to warm ocean temperatures.

Beryl comes a little over a week earlier than previous record holder, Hurricane Dennis, which got to Category 4 on July 8, 2005.

Hurricane warnings have been issued in Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands, Grenada and Tobago with tropical storm watches elsewhere in the Caribbean,

while dangerous swells are expected to hit Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.