The test of the Caribbean’s resilience to natural disasters didn’t end when Beryl, the storm that wreaked havoc in parts of the region, finally fizzled out somewhere in North America earlier this week. The toughest part of the test is still to come as the hardest-hit countries count their losses and begin the long, difficult process of rebuilding.
It will take months and years to recuperate from the devastation that was inflicted in less than an hour of extreme storm activity in most instances. This is the most critical time, when neighbouring countries that were only minimally affected or escaped unscathed—such as T&T—need to step in with tangible displays of solidarity with Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and other islands hit hard by Hurricane Beryl.
It will take weeks to fully assess Beryl’s impact on the environment and infrastructure. Entire communities have been flattened, homes destroyed and livelihoods wiped out in Carriacou, Grenada, and the Grenadine Islands in St Vincent and the Grenadines. At least 11 lives were lost on the islands where Beryl made landfall between Carriacou and Jamaica.
As usually happens in the aftermath of these disasters, relief supplies are already being delivered to the hardest hit communities. Representatives of the local NGO Is There Not a Cause? were on the ground in Grenada and St Vincent yesterday, and relief shipments have been sent from other T&T agencies as well as from other Caribbean countries.
Further afield, the United Nations is making $4 million available from its Central Emergency Response Fund to Grenada, Jamaica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Every little bit helps, and citizens are encouraged to support the efforts of reputable humanitarian aid organisations and charities operating in the region for this urgent cause. Most of these entities prefer monetary donations as they minimise shipping and other logistical costs.
But much more is required, well beyond the relief operations already in progress in the hardest-hit communities. The Caribbean needs to unite and explore collective preventative and recovery measures that have now become crucial, not only to overcome the post-disaster challenges but also to mitigate the effects of the other storms forecast to come this way.
Beryl was just another early indicator of the impact of natural disasters in this era of climate change. The worst is yet to come. That means a greater role ahead for agencies such as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency in terms of coordinating Caricom-level responses and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, which was set up to limit the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes and earthquakes on the region.
Even before climate change added this frightening new dimension of super-charged storms, countries were taking major physical and financial hits during hurricane season. Hurricane Gilbert, though a distant memory, caused 45 deaths and inflicted approximately US$700 million in damage when it hit Jamaica on September 12, 1988. In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan, then the worst hurricane in nearly 50 years to hit Grenada, caused $1.1 billion in damage—representing 200 per cent of the country’s GDP—destroyed 30 per cent of the houses and killed 39 people.
The predictions from the experts are that storms could be much more severe and inflict considerably more damage. Post-COVID, no single Caricom member-state can bear destruction on that scale on its own. This is a threat the region must unite to face.
