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Apart from the lush green beauty and turquoise shorelines, one thing the Caribbean countries have in common is their vulnerability to frequent and calamitous natural disasters with some of these storms devastating the region, causing substantial loss of life and widespread destruction. These natural disasters have massive economic and human costs. They take a deep toll on growth expectation and wipe out fiscal support. Huge reconstruction costs in their aftermath crowd out scarce resources for health, education, and social spending. And, climate change will only intensify these risks. Countries can adopt policies to reduce the human and economic costs of disasters and build resilience to future shocks through better preparation and a more effective response.

For the Caribbean, however, building resilience is a matter of survival. The region has, typically, suffered more damage in the last decade and is seven times more likely to be hit by natural disasters than larger countries. The economic cost of these disasters for the Caribbean is fundamental and climate change is expected to exacerbate the problem by making such disasters more frequent and severe. While the Caribbean accounts for a tiny part of greenhouse gas emissions globally, it is disproportionately more vulnerable to climate risks. Large shares of the region’s population live in high-risk areas with weak infrastructure. In fact, most of the Caribbean’s economies rely heavily on sectors that are often affected by weather, such as tourism and agriculture, and often have limited resources to manage the risk of natural disasters.  

Frequent floods, droughts, hurricanes, and rising sea levels pose a significant threat to agriculture and coastal areas and elevate the risk of water and food insecurity. As a result of climate-related disasters, we have lately seen a large number of people migrating, trying to find suitable accommodations in other countries because of unfavourable conditions in their home countries. 

This could become a significant policy concern for the Caribbean, where brain drain poses a serious threat to growth. Disasters have large and persistent economic effects that range from lost income to the destruction of physical and human capital, infrastructure, and property. Rebuilding provides a temporary boost, but indirect effects can spread throughout the economy and undermine investment, growth, and macroeconomic performance.

So, what is the Caribbean doing to prepare for the next hurricane season which is already predicted to be above average according to scientists at Colorado State University? 

All countries in the Caribbean should collaborate to develop a permanent disaster response corps that is available for rapid-response missions. They could coordinate it through CARICOM or other regional mechanisms. Currently, there is no single group with the proper training in all of the disciplines needed for disaster preparedness, recovery and response. 

All disaster preparedness and management efforts should involve private sector actors across the spectrum, ranging from large hotel chains to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Government, civil society, and the private sector should map out and document available expertise and protocols for cooperation across sectors in advance of hazards and conduct regular drills. As part of such resilience efforts, companies can extend the reach of their own emergency preparedness, response, and recovery activities to include employees, family members and members of the community.

Preparing for disasters is generally more cost-effective than responding after the fact. The region must make it a priority to design measures that reduce the likelihood and cost of climate-related disasters and build resilience to future shocks. Risk cannot always be averted, however, and in those cases, countries should invest in ways to lessen the impact of disasters by building monetary cushions to protect against a rainy day when it faces unpredictable financing needs and by allowing both the public and private sectors to pool fiscal resources for which the cost of large buffers through self-insurance may become too high. 

Better preparation should diminish the need for countries to finance the costs of rebuilding after disasters. But experience suggests that, despite the clear benefits of preparation, countries perennially underinvest in risk reduction and prevention.

Subrina Hall-Azih is a Trinidadian Educator residing in New York.