The grandchildren called the shelter Final Destination, after a favourite film. Tedica Alexander, 61, a resident of Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines, recalls with pride \u2013 and a tremor in her voice \u2013 how her nine grandchildren supported her and others at the Ashton community centre when Hurricane Beryl hit the area in July 2024.<\/p>\n
Alexander arrived after she was advised to seek shelter in Ashton, rather than at Clifton school as she had expected as it was closer. As the storm approached, the shelter quickly filled up. The building\u2019s windows shattered, and flood waters rose above ankle height. \u201cIf it had lasted one more minute, the door would have given way,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Her grandchildren stayed at the door, fighting against the wind and rain to let the latecomers in. At one point, she rested her head against a pillar, crying, while her six-year-old granddaughter whispered words of comfort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the first to arrive,\u201d says Alexander. In the end, 47 children and 147 adults sheltered there, including three people who used wheelchairs. \u201cEveryone was praying,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
This experience marked the beginning of her many weeks\u2019 stay at the community centre, during which Alexander voluntarily took responsibility for cooking and overseeing the site\u2019s overall management, with support from other residents.<\/p>\n
Houses in Clifton on Union Island showing the destructive force of Hurricane Beryl. Photograph: Lucanus Ollivierre\/AP<\/p>\n
The role of caretaker is a familiar one for many women during a natural disaster. Yet studies show that it can make the experience more difficult for women, since they are often fending not only for themselves but for others such.<\/p>\n
In 2022, UN Women<\/a> reported \u201cevidence of women\u2019s increased vulnerability [due to] the pre-existing social and cultural demands on women and girls as primary caregivers with the imbalanced responsibilities for care of elderly people, children and the sick\u201d in the aftermath of a disaster, and that social inequities and gendered roles make women and girls more likely to be killed<\/a> in a disaster.<\/p>\n While an emergency shelter may be a haven from a natural disaster, they offer little security against gender-based violence for women and girls, reports suggest.<\/p>\n A 2021 systematic review<\/a>, published in BMJ Global Health, looked at studies on violence against women and girls during natural disasters, and found that \u201cpost-disaster environments often heightened risks\u201d. For example, \u201cthe lack of doors, walls and locks in displacement camps heightened violence against women and girls in Haiti, Japan and Nepal\u201d. It also suggested that failures by law enforcement enabled violence in emergency shelters.<\/p>\n A woman cleans up on Union Island after Hurricane Beryl. Photograph: Red Cross<\/p>\n Last year a project by the UN development programme<\/a>, Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean, focused on embedding gender equality and human rights in climate resilience and disaster recovery across nine Caribbean countries. It recommended broader regional scaling, sustained technical and financial support and stronger knowledge-sharing systems.<\/p>\n The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has been working to address the challenges faced by women and girls in emergency shelters, says Loyce Pace, its Americas<\/a> regional director. The organisation publishes manuals providing guidance to agencies working on the ground during natural disasters.<\/p>\n Pace says such guidance may take the form of \u201cdiplomatic engagements or advocacy, ensuring [national] governments understand the role that they should be playing or could be playing in emergencies, and that they have access to the resources or people or places they need to be most supportive of their communities\u201d.<\/p>\n A pressing concern for disaster relief in the the Bahamas is capacity: the country currently has shelter accommodation for only 3% of its population. Photograph: Red Cross<\/p>\n \u201cIn emergencies in general, we find that women and children are particularly vulnerable. And it\u2019s largely because they\u2019re one of the populations that are often either left behind or not considered in terms of their particular needs, or even worse, they\u2019re exposed to worse conditions and thus have poorer outcomes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n