Disaster preparedness needs many approaches

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. It is a frequently used admonishment that there are consequences for actions and to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

For anyone who has been paying attention, the warnings have been clear; that we in the hurricane belt in the Caribbean are likely to experience a highly active hurricane season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the leading voice on such weather events has also advised of its expectations for the 2024 hurricane season, which started earlier this month and runs through to November.

The NOAA’s Climate Prediction Centre outlined its forecast of an “above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin this year”.

The outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season anticipates an 85 percent chance of an above-normal season, a ten percent chance of a near-normal season and a five percent chance of a below-normal season.

A senior official of the United States federal government issued this warning. “Severe weather and emergencies can happen at any moment, which is why individuals and communities need to be prepared today.”

The government of Barbados too has been signalling to citizens that the adverse events of the past three to four years – the freak storm that damaged scores of homes, the La Soufriere volcano ashfall that blanketed the island and the social impact of the pandemic – have proven that the state cannot be expected to carry the full weight of recovering from such eventualities.

The economy is still regarded by some economic experts as still in uncertain waters despite the many successive quarters of economic growth. The fact remains that the island’s heavily tourism dependent economy took a battering during the pandemic and requires a much longer period of sustained growth to affirm that it is on a continuous path of growth and expansion.

The recent comments, therefore, of Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey were instructive.

He has highlighted the significant number of “vulnerable” Barbadians who are likely to be more severely impacted were the country to be hit by some adverse climate event or natural disaster.

Their ability to recover from such an event is extremely limited due to existing economic challenges within their households. Living in poverty during the best of times is tough, and the experience of a major weather or natural disaster only exacerbates the difficulties.

The Minister outlined following a post-Cabinet press briefing this week, some 17 000 people have been categorised as “vulnerable”. The figure was arrived at based on the Ministry’s social welfare services, as well as information collected by the Department of Emergency Management (DEM).

“We have developed what you call a geospatial map, which allows us to see where people are located and the nature of their issues. So, if a person has a disability, if a person is elderly, if a house is desperately in need of repair, we will be able to identify them.

“So far, we have inputted information for 15 983 clients from the ministry and in total we have 17 244 persons,” Mr Humphrey disclosed.

His assessment is that this information positions state officials to reach such persons in times of disaster in a more efficient manner.

This is a commendable move by the administration. Given the current high cost of living environment, even those who fall into the traditional middle-class grouping are finding it difficult to adequately prepare themselves for unplanned emergencies.

In government’s effort to ensure that as many Barbadians are positioned to help themselves, the timing is right to return many of the tax deductibles that assisted homeowners to be in a better state of readiness.

In this connection, we call on government to consider making home insurance and payments to registered retirement saving plans expenses that can be claimed in annual tax filings.

The insurance industry and the state have already acknowledged that about half the homes in Barbados are uninsured. Thus, incentivising people to purchase home insurance for that added protection would go a long way in reducing the load on government and taxpayers when a disaster strikes.

One simply has to reference the Chinese housing fiasco which was precipitated by the need for government to quickly respond to the necessity to house scores of persons following a natural disaster.