Believe it or not, there are still two more months left in the hurricane season.
Over the weekend, Tobago became the latest island to be severely affected by a weather system within the past month, as Tropical Storm Karen triggered floods and landslides and uprooted trees and poles – 64 years to the day a powerful hurricane followed the same path.
Fortunately, no deaths were reported.
The prediction of a more active than usual 2019 hurricane season has held true.
On average between 1981 and 2010, an Atlantic hurricane season has produced 12 tropical storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes. So far this season, there have already been 12 tropical storms and four hurricanes, including two major hurricanes.
Those systems have so far been responsible for the loss of over 70 lives and approximately US$8.49 million in damage.
Still, two months to go.
And amidst all of this, Barbados and Barbadians have largely remained unscathed.
Apart from damage to a few homes from then Tropical Storm Dorian, we have so far had the good fortune of avoiding any major impact.
But what happened in Tobago also highlights the strengths of these systems and the significant damage and disruption they can cause.
These incidents, while unfortunate, present us a perfect opportunity to reflect on what has now become the norm for small island developing states like ours.
It is somewhat unbelievable to fathom how so many of our fellow citizens feel the need to run to social media to blast the Met Office whenever weather conditions differ even the slightest from those in a forecast.
This is especially troubling when one observes the damage in Tobago after only a few hours of rain, or more devastatingly, what happened to Grand Bahama and Abaco in the northern Bahamas with Hurricane Dorian.
Only last Friday, Dominica held an event of hope and celebration to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Maria, the island’s worst natural disaster.
It has been two long years since Dominica was virtually flattened, and while the road to recovery has been tough – there are still some areas which have not yet been repaired – the beloved Nature Isle has shown remarkable resilience and determination to rebuild.
This is a process unknown to most Barbadians, with only those in their 70s and older having been alive to experience the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Janet when it struck on September 22, 1955.
While we in the Caribbean often touted our year-round sunshine, between the months of June 1 and November 30 – and sometimes before and after – there is an ever clear and present danger.
These cyclones threaten the livelihood of millions in our region and have the potential to wipe out islands completely.
This was evidenced two years ago when Hurricane Irma did just that to Barbuda, destroying 90 per cent of its buildings.
“As it stands, Barbuda is practically uninhabitable,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne said at the time.
This is why Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s continued fight on the international stage for more attention to be paid to climate change and SIDS must be applauded, supported and ultimately heeded.
Richer countries, such as the US, which are also threatened during the hurricane season, have the financial resources to negate those effects, expensive though they may be.
But for such islands as Dominica, which lost 226 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) when Maria struck, there is no such windfall.
Let’s continue to hope that in the days leading up to November 30 – our Independence Day, Barbados’ good fortunes continue and yet another hurricane season passes us relatively unscathed.
But let us also be mindful that it only takes one hurricane to upend for a very, very long the best-laid plans of a nation unvisited by a major hurricane in 64 years.
