Weathering the storm

One week before the presidential elections in the United States of America, it would be expected that attention would be turned to that global superpower – especially in this part of the world where, by virtue of being in the United States’ backyard, we are acutely sensitive to any of their political and economic changes. However, while our eyes are indeed trained on events occurring in that North American territory, it’s for an altogether different reason. The name that is capturing everyone’s
attention at this time is neither Romney nor Obama – it’s Sandy.

Labelled a ‘superstorm’, Sandy first began to garner attention as a tropical storm in the Caribbean region when it wreaked its havoc on the northern Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Haiti at the end of last week. Certainly, not the worst natural disaster ever to affect these territories, it still did its fair share of damage, which is still being quantified. However, as the storm strengthened into a hurricane and barrelled its way towards the Eastern seaboard of the United States, it began to dominate international media coverage as emergency and evacuation plans went into effect and persons inhabiting these areas braced themselves for the impact.

Many Caribbean people who were living in territories out of harm’s way or who had been spared the brunt of the storm still had cause to be anxious – a large part of the Caribbean Diaspora resides in the United States, and particularly along the East Coast, so persons would have been worried for the safety of their many relatives living there. We sincerely hope that they have not been too severely affected and that in the coming days, mobility, work and life in general will be resumed with some degree of normalcy.

The images and reports coming out of New York City are perhaps among the most impactful. The image of New York City, that glittering icon of man-made endeavours, cowering in the face of Nature’s might is striking. Too often mankind becomes overly confident in his own achievements and is humbled when Mother Nature rises up and displays the true extent of her power. The ‘city that never sleeps’ was virtually a tomb earlier this week as mass transport systems by ground, rail and air shut down, other major institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange trading floor closed, and the residents of one of the US’ most populous cities left for safer environs or hunkered down to weather the storm.

Meanwhile, we are just shy of one month before the official end of the hurricane season on November 30 and we must continue to place a premium on disaster preparedness. While Barbados has been spared the impact of a major weather system so far this season, the same cannot be said for other Caribbean territories. Sandy notwithstanding, Tropical Storm Raphael also caused its fair share of damage as did other lesser weather systems. Sandy alone reminds us that whether or not a hurricane season is predicted to be highly active or not, it only takes one major weather system to wreak untold damage.

We continue to pray that those countries already affected will be able to recover as quickly as possible. And we also pray that those unaffected will be spared the impact of a major weather system. Finally, we urge all citizens to remember that we may find ourselves facing more than hurricanes; we must therefore make a greater effort to be disaster ready year-round, and not just from June to November.