The Caribbean (hurricanes)

The Caribbean and parts of North America are currently in the midst of the 2022 hurricane season, which saw Ian undergo rapid intensification from a tropical storm to a Category 4 storm over just a few days, leaving the western coast of Florida particularly unprepared for impact.

Across Cuba and the United States, damages exceeded US$67.2 billion. Just prior to Ian, the Fiona became the most northerly Category 4 Atlantic storm, bringing rain as far north as Greenland (Burg, 2022). Damage ranged from country-wide blackouts in Puerto Rico and water supply issues that left 400,000 without power (OCHA, 2022) to widespread outages throughout the Canadian maritimes (NPR, 2022).

Other devastating hurricanes to strike the Caribbean in recent years include Matthew (Category 4, 2016), Maria (Category 5, 2017), and Dorian (Category 5, 2019).

Maria became the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico and caused island-wide blackouts and 4,600 deaths (Washington Post, 2018). After 7 months, 62,000 people on the island remained without power (World Vision, 2018a).

Matthew dramatically impacted Haiti with 546 estimated fatalities (World Vision, 2018b), 175,000 displaced individuals and 330,000 children out of school (OCHA, 2016) – its damages paralleled the 2010 earthquake. In addition to the effects of the hurricane, the island experienced food insecurity and rising cholera rates (Ibid.).

Cumulatively, US$27 billion was recorded in damages and losses in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean between 2000-2017 (LaCorbiniere, 2022). Projected damages from inland flooding due to tropical storms, storm surges, and winds could reach 9% of regional GDP by 2030 (Ibid.).

Read more about extreme weather here.

Read more about the socioeconomic risks of climate change here.