{"id":245542,"date":"2025-11-05T15:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/245542\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:45:09","slug":"at-the-mercy-of-nature-how-the-caribbean-is-dealing-with-the-unprecedented-hurricane-melissa-hurricane-melissa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/245542\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018At the mercy of nature\u2019: how the Caribbean is dealing with the unprecedented Hurricane Melissa | Hurricane Melissa"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been one week since Hurricane Melissa made landfall. The storm\u2019s strength has been record-breaking<\/a>. To better understand the situation on the ground, I called up Natricia Duncan, the Guardian\u2019s Caribbean correspondent, who is based in Jamaica, the country most affected. We spoke about the impact of the hurricane, and how people navigate living under constant climate precariousness.<\/p>\n

The fears, fallout and future<\/p>\n

Unbearable tragedy \u2026 flooding has been severe throughout the Caribbean, including in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Photograph: Eddy Vittini\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Hurricane Melissa was a historic climate event. \u201cThis country has faced some difficult storms,\u201d Natricia said, \u201cbut by all accounts this was different. I spoke to people in their 60s and they said to me, again and again, \u2018I have never heard anything like this in my life\u2019.\u201d Last week, Natricia visited one of the most affected areas in the south-west of Jamaica<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words,\u201d she said about what she saw. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to do justice to the damage that I saw on the way to St Elizabeth. The area was cut off from the rest of Jamaica due to landslides, flooding, debris.\u201d As she was driving through a river, she realised it was actually not a body of water but flooding. \u201cAlmost every single building had suffered some level of damage,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople were telling us there used to be a shop here or a restaurant there and now there is nothing, not even evidence\u201d that these places existed. Residents told her they don\u2019t know where the structures went, other than \u201cprobably in the ocean\u201d.<\/p>\n

Humour in the face of a hurricane<\/p>\n

The buildup as Hurricane Melissa made its way towards the islands was unusually long. \u201cBeing here on the ground,\u201d Natricia said \u201cI was terrified. My stomach was in knots for two days. By all accounts this was going to be terrible. As one minister said, \u2018How do you prepare yourself for something like this?\u2019 You are at the mercy of nature. Waiting for it was really difficult. We had more notice than normal because it was moving so slowly.\u201d The anticipation of the hurricane also inspired some dark humour as Jamaicans posted memes and reels<\/a> on social media, one of the ways the population coped.<\/p>\n

I ask Natricia how severe weather events have come to shape a nation\u2019s and, indeed, an entire region\u2019s psyche. \u201cThe death toll is significant for a small population,\u201d she told me. \u201cEvery life lost is an unbearable tragedy.\u201d The other main effect is the elimination of livelihoods and shelter, and the challenge of trying to sustain hope in the midst of climate calamity.<\/p>\n

Reaping what affluent nations have sown<\/p>\n

Urgency and change \u2026 the reparations movement needs to include tackling the climate emergency. Photograph: Marten van Dijl\/Greenpeace<\/p>\n

Climate change has increased the intensity of hurricanes through the warming of the ocean water in which they form. The result is slower buildups, and therefore more powerful storms and heavier rain loads. \u201cThere is a link\u201d Natricia said, \u201cthe warming of the Atlantic Ocean is turbo-charging what would have been a much less intense storm.\u201d There is an awareness in the region, she added, that climate change is partly responsible. But that link is not being made strongly enough where it counts. International climate change conferences are not factoring in the \u201clived experience, the fear, the trepidation of those living in the Caribbean\u201d, and so the \u201curgency and change that needs to happen\u201d is not forthcoming. \u201cThe more voices we have from the Caribbean<\/a>, the more pressure there will be to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a growing campaign for industrial nations to share reconstruction and support efforts. \u201cThe emissions from climate change that are causing these effects\u201d in the Caribbean, Natricia said, \u201care not coming from these regions.\u201d The Caribbean, which is collectively responsible for only 1% of greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, is reaping what affluent states have sown. \u201cThere is a growing movement of climate change and slavery reparations\u201d she said, one that argues that the reparations movement needs to include tackling the climate crisis. Arley Gill, the head of the Grenada Reparations Commission, pointed out that there was an \u201cinescapable\u201d link between the pursuit of justice for enslavement and justice for climate change. He previously told<\/a> Natricia that \u201cour climate change challenges can be traced to the Industrial Revolution. And the Industrial Revolution in Europe was fuelled by the Atlantic slave trade and slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fortifying the future<\/p>\n

Collective effort \u2026 a family salvages belongings from the rubble of their home in the Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba. Photograph: Yamil Lage\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The challenge now is to rebuild. In many instances, \u201cyou have to build a whole community from scratch\u201d explained Natricia, who said some communities were hit by Hurricane Beryl last year and had just finished rebuilding their homes. \u201cThere is a mental health challenge \u2013 think about your child having to live through the roof of their houses being torn off. Those who have survived will be traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is also a colossal marshalling of efforts among the large Jamaican diaspora. Plans are being made for a number of fundraising concerts in a series named \u201cI love Jamaica\u201d<\/a>, to be held in Jamaica and plans for concerts in Canada and the US. Meanwhile, Jamaican celebrities including the musician Shaggy have launched their own aid<\/a> campaigns.<\/p>\n

Beyond rebuilding, what looms in the near distance is how to fortify. Natricia, who is from St Vincent and the Grenadines, articulated a growing, Caribbean-wide sense of the urgent need to future-proof communities. \u201cVery few people across the Caribbean islands are not thinking about the future. We have all been touched by these hurricanes. Hurricane season is coming to an end, but it starts again on 1 June . We have that burden of thinking: how do I make sure I am safe? What more can I do to make sure of that in the coming years?\u201d<\/p>\n

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