Introduction to Special Issue on The Caribbean after Irma and Maria: Climate, Development & the Post-Hurricane Context

Abstract

The 2017 hurricane season left deep scars across the Caribbean basin's social and ecological landscapes, after two powerful Category 5 storms, Hurricanes Irma and Maria, swept across the region in a span of less than two weeks. The hurricanes led to significant loss of life and left a trail of destruction across much of the Caribbean, with total damages estimated to be at least $120 billion (Wilkinson et al. 2018, 2). An assessment by the United Nations Development Program summarized the impacts: Thousands were made homeless, and key infrastructure for transportation, water, health, tourism, and education were devastated. Between 70 and 95 percent of houses were damaged in Anguilla, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, BVI, Barbuda and Dominica. The anomaly of two catastrophic

Resilience Gentrification: Environmental Privilege in an Age of Coastal Climate Disasters

“…This requires a major reorientation of thought-part of the ongoing intellectual project to "decolonize." Reflecting on analysis of the Caribbean experience, which seeks a "decolonial resilience" -not to "bounce back" but to "bounce forward, " Popke and Rhiney (2019) (5-6) suggest "to draw from local knowledge and experience to build an alternative model of disaster planning and response. .…”

“…However, on the flip side, she argues, that these terms "can be used to legitimize the activities of groups with very different interests, " which can in turn obscure tensions and power relations (1331). Geographers Popke and Rhiney (2019) examine the concept of resilience in light of the post-hurricane context in the Caribbean. They note, "The twin watchwords for this paradigm [of disaster preparedness and response] are 'resilience' (as a form of preparedness) and 'building back better' (as a means of response).…”

Climate Change and Small Island Developing States

“…Issues of climate mobility and displacement linked to current and projected sea-level rise have emerged as a key adaptation and loss and damage priority for numerous small and low-lying island states in the Pacific (142)(143)(144). Recent damaging impacts of hurricanes and other extreme climate events in the Caribbean have triggered questions around the justice implications and transformative potential of the post-hurricane reconstruction efforts that are unfolding across the region (145).…”

The disaster trap: Cyclones, tourism, colonial legacies, and the systemic feedbacks exacerbating disaster risk

“…A growing body of critical scholarship that joins disasters studies with tourism examines the omnipresence of colonial legacies in a sprawling geography of post‐disaster settings (Cruz‐Martínez et al, 2018; Davis et al, 2019; Moulton & Machado, 2019; Popke & Rhiney, 2019; Bonilla, 2020; Gahman & Thongs, 2020; Rivera, 2020; Rhiney, 2020; Faria et al, 2021). Although critiques differ, scholarship agrees that many disaster settings are shaped by legacies of colonial occupation and systematised racial capitalism.…”