This year the start of hurricane season was met with a palpable sense of anxiety. It may be almost two years since Irma and Maria made their mark on the eastern Caribbean, but no-one has forgotten the devastation and the subsequent arduous recovery. Since the landmark 2017 season, the region has been firmly focused on disaster management. Conferences were convened, seminars were held and high-level discussions took place as governments, environmental groups and development agencies all clamoured to air their views on disaster risk and resilience. But has this talk translated into action? Is the Caribbean prepared for the 2019 season?
SIGNS OF PROGRESS
Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Ronald Jackson believes the Caribbean has come a long way in two years, but must keep up the pace because there is more to do. He says: “We have made some positive strides forward since 2017, but we still see some room for improvement. There is still more to be done that involves looking at national-level efforts around preparedness and responses. A number of national institutions need to be strengthened. There are still some countries we need to keep an eye on.”
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are of particular concern, according to Jackson who says the latter is still struggling after direct hits from the 2017 storms. He adds that Jamaica and Saint Lucia are “leading the Caribbean” in terms of risk financing. “Saint Lucia has seen a lot of really good work on financing the risk management aspect. It is very encouraging.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Climate Prediction Center has predicted a “near-normal” Atlantic hurricane season this year with between nine and 15 named storms (i.e. those with winds of 39mph or higher), of which four to eight could become hurricanes. The numbers may sound low but every Caribbean native knows that all it takes is one storm to destroy livelihoods and wreak havoc on the region.
CDEMA has to be ready for anything and preparation takes place all-year round. “There is a lot of work that goes into being ready for June 1,” says Jackson. “This kind of work is 365 days a year. We have quite a bit on our plate.”
CDEMA has been busy training members of the CARICOM Disaster Relief Unit and upgrading and improving its Regional Coordination Centre in Barbados. In May it collaborated with the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the US military for training exercises. The agency is also working on a Model Evacuation Plan for guidance on how to deal with the displaced. Partnership and collaboration is at the core of these efforts and CDEMA has been building links with the international community to enhance training, improve tools and technology, and access technical and financial support.
Cooperation is a vital component, according to Jackson who wants to see a culture of coordination trickle down so that national, regional and international players are all on the same page and working seamlessly towards the same goal. Jackson likens it to conducting a piece of music, saying: “Your orchestra is a number of instruments playing their part in the symphony. That message is understood in some countries but not in all.
“A huge part of being prepared is leadership, not just political but operational. There is a belief that disaster risk management is the responsibility of one office [but] it requires a whole society approach.”
PUBLIC PREPAREDNESS
That whole society approach can only come about with substantial public buy-in. While governments and other bodies can, and should, drive resilience efforts, it is also up to every Caribbean citizen to play their part. “The population needs to take ownership and individual responsibility for preparedness at the household level and that should be joined by national level resources,” says Jackson. “The responsibility of the public cannot be overstated.”
Saint Lucia’s National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) has been making public education a priority, with a slew of public service announcements broadcast over the national media, community visits and updates on their social media platforms. But, like every aspect of disaster preparedness, public awareness campaigns cost money. One of the major constraints on regional readiness is funding. Jackson says hurricane preparedness is often sidelined in favour of other budgetary concerns.
“It is about trying to balance resource allocation across a number of priorities. We need to look at capacity and capability strengthening [and ask] how do we make this the priority of priorities? Debt is strangling each country’s ability to finance these transformational things that are required. We are in a time of climate change; we have to look at the humanitarian issues. We need to recognise a unity of purpose that is focused on minimising impact and suffering.”
This is an area where the public can drive change, he suggests, with greater involvement in holding their leaders to account and showing them that it is a national concern. “If the public does not see it as a priority, then government will not see it as a priority.”
Evolving tools
In the internet age, the public now have access to a wealth of information about hurricanes. Whether tracking a storm through an app, connecting with those affected via social media platforms or browsing the NOAA website for data, the general public is now more aware of the potential scale and damage of hurricane season.
For Jackson, this is a positive step — making the region less complacent and pushing disaster management into the spotlight. “We have become more engaged as a global society. Citizens are becoming citizen scientists and their expectations of what the state can deliver is now higher.”
And it’s not just the public availing themselves of the latest digital tools. CDEMA has been keeping up with cutting-edge technology to enhance their efforts — making use of a platform that inputs real-time country data to develop potential impact scenarios, using RFID technology to scan and track relief goods, monitoring enhanced early warning systems and upgrading satellite systems.
“We depend heavily on technology. The availability of modern tools can really change the game. We are very excited about the technology and where it is going. It will not be an overnight change but we are making strides.”
Preparing for hurricanes is a never-ending task. As long as there are storms, the Caribbean must continue to figure out how to weather them. “There will never be a time when we do not worry,” says Jackson. “We are islands, we will always face those challenges.”
While resilience and risk have become buzzwords in recent years, CDEMA has been focused on those two elements for some time and Jackson sounds a note of cautious optimism, urging national institutions to turn talk into action. “We have to be very careful that we do not just use the word resilience, but we understand what it means and we are able to measure and track it. I am very hopeful that we will get it right in terms of having sophisticated emergency response systems and a reduction in our level of exposure and vulnerability.”
