#BTEditorial – 2020’s next ‘season of harm’

As if this year has not already brought enough peril and pestilence to last a lifetime, Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean must now focus our attention on the Atlantic Hurricane Season, ensuring that for the next six months we are prepared for what is forecast to be an “above normal” period of hostile weather.

And in what could be described an early shot across the bow, there have already been two named weather systems even before the official start of the 2020 hurricane season. On discussion boards of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Centre, the predictions are for “60 per cent chance of an above-normal season, a 30 per cent chance of a near-normal season and only a ten per cent chance of a below-normal season”.

Warmer ocean temperatures and light tropical Atlantic trade winds are the perfect recipe for a cyclone that is sure to bring destruction and damage.

Our memories cannot be so short that we do not recall the harm inflicted here by Tropical Storm Tomas in 2010. It took years for some vulnerable families to return to some sense of normalcy. And that weather system did not even reach hurricane strength when it passed close to the island.

Our neighbours in Grenada had their lives and economy destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 which, by the way, was predicted to be a direct hit on Barbados before it made a sudden turn south and wrecked our neighbour.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria was an absolute killer, destroying lives and property up and down the island chain: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos Islands and Puerto Rico.

And as we stock up on supplies and undertake home repairs, there are the spectra of COVID-19. The pall of this highly infectious disease hangs over us like the grim reaper, waiting for the opportunity to strike if we make the mistake of letting our collective guards down.

This novel coronavirus has weakened already struggling economies, particularly those that are tourism-dependent. Ironically, we in Barbados were slowly beginning to exhibit greater confidence in our economic future after a near-decade of austerity when the pandemic struck.

Hotels were full, jobs were coming back, unions were negotiating for pay increases, infrastructural projects were in the pipeline and then it all came to a crashing halt.

Today, following the COVID-19 blow, tens of thousands of Barbadians are barely subsisting and are heavily reliant on the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), as well as on help from Government’s Household Mitigation Project.

Prime Minister Mottley has admitted that the island reached the unenviable mark of 41,000 applicants for NIS unemployment assistance. That is a staggering statistic that has never been experienced in the NIS’ history. A natural disaster in such circumstances would be calamitous.

As such, we urge the state and homeowners to urgently formulate their disaster management plans. We know the routine. We admonish households to pool what little resources they may have to ensure that homes and their contents are insured as Government’s finances are already stretched and unlikely to support mass housing in the wake of a hurricane.

We are well aware that in times of difficulties, it is those who can least afford it that are hit the hardest. And 2020 has already demonstrated it is not to be trifled with.

60 per cent chance of an above-normal season, a 30 per cent chance of a near-normal season and only a ten per cent chance of a below-normal season”.

Warmer ocean temperatures and light tropical Atlantic trade winds are the perfect recipe for a cyclone that is sure to bring destruction and damage.

Our memories cannot be so short that we do not recall the harm inflicted here by Tropical Storm Tomas in 2010. It took years for some vulnerable families to return to some sense of normalcy. And that weather system did not even reach hurricane strength when it passed close to the island.

Our neighbours in Grenada had their lives and economy destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 which, by the way, was predicted to be a direct hit on Barbados before it made a sudden turn south and wrecked our neighbour.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria was an absolute killer, destroying lives and property up and down the island chain: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos Islands and Puerto Rico.

And as we stock up on supplies and undertake home repairs, there are the spectra of COVID-19. The pall of this highly infectious disease hangs over us like the grim reaper, waiting for the opportunity to strike if we make the mistake of letting our collective guards down.

This novel coronavirus has weakened already struggling economies, particularly those that are tourism-dependent. Ironically, we in Barbados were slowly beginning to exhibit greater confidence in our economic future after a near-decade of austerity when the pandemic struck.

Hotels were full, jobs were coming back, unions were negotiating for pay increases, infrastructural projects were in the pipeline and then it all came to a crashing halt.

Today, following the COVID-19 blow, tens of thousands of Barbadians are barely subsisting and are heavily reliant on the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), as well as on help from Government’s Household Mitigation Project.

Prime Minister Mottley has admitted that the island reached the unenviable mark of 41,000 applicants for NIS unemployment assistance. That is a staggering statistic that has never been experienced in the NIS’ history. A natural disaster in such circumstances would be calamitous.

As such, we urge the state and homeowners to urgently formulate their disaster management plans. We know the routine. We admonish households to pool what little resources they may have to ensure that homes and their contents are insured as Government’s finances are already stretched and unlikely to support mass housing in the wake of a hurricane.

We are well aware that in times of difficulties, it is those who can least afford it that are hit the hardest. And 2020 has already demonstrated it is not to be trifled with.