As the grim task begins of assessing the extent of losses inflicted by Hurricane Dorian on the most northerly of the Bahamas islands, residents across the Caribbean have been served another frightening reminder about climate change and the severe toll it is taking on the region.
It was just two years ago that Hurricanes Irma and Maria left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean and Florida, leaving in their wakes a high death toll and billions of dollars in damage. First, there was Hurricane Irma, the first Category 5 hurricane to affect the northern Leeward Islands, with winds of 285 kilometres an hour in early September 2017.
Approximately 95 per cent of structures were damaged or destroyed in Barbuda, rendering that island uninhabitable for the first time in 300 years. Irma’s fury was experienced in the French territories of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, the British Virgin Islands and the US Virgin Islands, as well as the Turks and Caicos Islands, some islands in the Bahamas and parts of Cuba.
Close on that system’s heels, Hurricane Maria embarked on its deadly trek across the region, intensifying to Category 5 as it approached Dominica. That island sustained catastrophic damage, as did Puerto Rico and other nearby islands.
Even with these powerful storms occurring more frequently, we have not been treating seriously enough with warnings from climatologists about these destructive consequences of warmer ocean temperatures and higher sea levels in the Caribbean Basin. Predictions are for these conditions to intensify and for their impacts to be more severe, even for countries like T&T which are outside the hurricane belt.
There is no denying the fact that hurricanes have increased in intensity over the past two to three decades. In the Atlantic Basin, models project a 45-87 per cent increase in the frequency of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes.
These facts alone should be prompting local authorities to put more focus on disaster preparedness. However, there is also the fact that this country got a jolt of reality last year when a period of intense rainfall triggered devastating floods in many communities, exposing how unprepared we are for a significant storm.
That is why it is so perplexing that only minimal effort is being put into disaster preparedness, far less the more long term objective of building climate resilience.
One sign of progress, which came late yesterday, was the announcement that the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) finally has a new CEO in the person of Major General (Ret’d) Rodney Smart. However, this is one small step at a time when the country needs to take many giant steps forward in preparing for natural disasters.
In the coming weeks and months, as a clearer picture of Dorian’s destruction emerges, local authorities should pay close attention. A similar situation in T&T is not as far fetched as many believe.