Caribbean urged to overhaul storm plans

Caribbean nations must urgently rethink their hurricane preparedness as storms grow more powerful and arrive earlier, the United Nations has warned, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl early last hurricane season and forecasts of an even more active season ahead.

Limya Eltayeb, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative for Barbados and the eastern Caribbean, issued the call during Monday’s launch of a US$2.93 million ($5.96 million) coastal fisheries resilience project. The initiative, funded by the UN and the government of Japan, aims to help rebuild the island’s fishing industry, which was severely affected by Hurricane Beryl in 2024.

“We know that in the Caribbean, the SIDS are among the most vulnerable in the world to adverse weather events. They’re the most exposed to them,” she said. “We also know that in a few hours, the gains of multiple decades, whether economic or social gains, can be wiped out, affecting people on the planet, affecting lives and livelihoods, affecting property and economy.”

She added: “Hurricane Beryl, which hit in July, was the first ever category 4 and 5 hurricane to hit that early in the season — meaning governments, people, communities were not prepared; which means we have to prepare earlier, we have to do a better job of continuously being prepared, and we have to do a better job of continuously investing in resilience so that every time we’re hit, we’re not hit to our knees.”

Eltayeb emphasised that resilience and recovery are at the heart of the UNDP’s work, and she encouraged communities and families to adopt a similar mindset.

“In our work in UNDP, recovery and resilience is at the core of everything we do. Not only do we have a whole cluster with multiple projects on it, we ensure it’s mainstreamed through everything. I think as communities and as individuals and families we all need to take that approach, and we have to mainstream it in our daily lives in how we save,” the UNDP representative explained.

The warning from Eltayeb comes as the University of Colorado predicts above-average hurricane activity for the 2025 season, based on climatological data from 1991 to 2020. Forecasts project 17 named storms, with nine expected to reach major hurricane status – category 3 or higher.

The UN official said: “We need to prepare now. We need to have this mainstreamed at the core of every morning of everything we do, of every project, of every investment. There’s a 56 per cent chance this year and with the climate crisis and climate change, we know that these percentages are only on the rise. They’re on the rise in frequency, they’re on the rise in magnitude. It’s not to scare us, it’s to say projects like these are important.”

(SB)