Caribbean, struggling with virus, braces for hurricanes

Houses with no roofs. Neighborhoods lacking electricity. Residents who fled still in exile.

Ten months after Hurricane Dorian pulverized the northern Bahamas, those islands are still struggling to recover as this year’s hurricane season begins. But rebuilding, always a slow process, has been slowed even further this year by a disaster of another sort: the coronavirus pandemic.

“That brought rebuilding efforts to a complete halt,” said Stafford Symonette, an evangelical pastor whose house on Great Abaco Island was severely damaged during the hurricane — and remains that way.

“You still have a lot of people in tents and temporary shelters,” he said.

The Bahamas — like other hurricane-prone countries in the Caribbean and North Atlantic — find themselves at the dramatic convergence of a devastating pandemic and an Atlantic hurricane season that is expected to be more active than normal.

The pandemic has profoundly affected all aspects of hurricane preparedness and response, and left nations even more vulnerable to the impacts of storms.

It has complicated rebuilding efforts from past hurricane seasons.

It has crippled national economies in the region, many of which depend heavily on tourism. It has forced the reallocation of diminished government resources — money and personnel that otherwise might have been used for hurricane-related work — to deal with the public health crisis.

It has meant that, in the event of a major storm, evacuation centers and shelters could now turn into dangerous vectors of coronavirus contagion, driving governments and relief agencies to figure out new protocols to keep evacuees safe. These mounting challenges have overwhelmed many of the region’s governments and relief agencies, which are scrambling to prepare for the next big storm.

“Are we prepared for this hurricane season?” said Ronald Sanders, ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States and to the Organization of American States. “The answer is: no. And I don’t care who tells you we are. We haven’t been able to dedicate any funds toward hurricane preparedness this year.”

“These countries are struggling and have been for some time,” he said. “The reality is that we are in dire straits.”

Weather scientists from the American government have predicted that during this Atlantic storm season, which began June 1 and runs through Nov. 30, there will be as many as 19 named storms, with as many as six growing to major hurricane status. An average hurricane season has 12 named storms and three major hurricanes.

The season has gotten off to a quick start, with four named storms.