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Recovering paradise
Battered by Hurricane Dorian, The Bahamas sets a course for a resilient future
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At the height of Hurricane Dorian’s fury, 185-mile-per-hour winds rattled Pauline Saunders’ home, hammering wind and water at structural weak spots. “The rain was coming in. We tried to close up the windows, but we couldn’t, the force was so strong,” she recalls.
It was 1 September 2019 on Abaco, an island in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas archipelago. The Category 5 hurricane hovered for over 48 hours, packing wind gusts of 220 miles per hour and 20-foot storm surges. On record it’s the strongest ever to make landfall in the country, and one of the most powerful in human history.
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Pauline watched as “cesspit water started flowing in like a faucet in the backyard, and water started to come inside the house”. She sought refuge in a friend’s apartment. “When I came back to check on my place, all the windows were burst out, the roof was opened up, so my place was flooded.”
In the aftermath, an inconvenient truth had become real: Saunders’ home, like many others in the direct path of Hurricane Dorian, was not built to withstand such a storm. Half of the houses and buildings in eastern Grand Bahama and Abaco were either destroyed or severely damaged, and 100 percent were decimated in several districts – 3,000 in total.
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The Bahamas set out to build a recovery that would reduce the chances of a repeat disaster. Led by the Government, inclusive resilience-building was a guiding force for UNDP support.
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On top of the human suffering – 74 people died, and 245 were still missing a year later – Dorian left behind $US3.4 billion in damage – equal to one quarter of the nation’s GDP – says the Inter-American Development Bank. Abaco and Grand Bahama have a combined population of about 70,000 people. After the storm, more than 29,500 of them were homeless, jobless or both. In its wake, 1.7 million cubic metres of debris choked gullies, roadways and yards. Overwhelmed by floodwater, houses in 50 plus subdivisions became contaminated with mould – a health hazard.
The Bahamas set out to build a recovery that would reduce the chances of a repeat disaster. The Government took aim at sustainable and resilient construction methods; emergency employment for environmental clean-up; long-term resilient recovery plans; and build back better know how. The goal was to ensure Bahamians like Pauline Saunders could face future storms and other hazards with minimum disruption.
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Led by the Government, inclusive resilience-building was a guiding force for UNDP support. “True recovery begins with the actions taken to reduce vulnerability to risks and improve resilience, while at the same time reducing the time it takes to recover from crisis,” concluded Denise E Antonio, UNDP Resident Representative for six Caribbean countries including The Bahamas.
Leading a SURGE team days after the storm, and later, efforts to craft UNDP’s crisis prevention and recovery intervention, Antonio reiterated the Government’s call for resilient recovery based on “building back better”.
“We must prepare for what is fast becoming the new norm – increasingly powerful and destructive storms that illustrate the harsh reality of climate change,” she said.
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Digital applications partly powered the process at the outset. In partnership with Engineers Without Borders, 20 Ministry of Public Works officials completed training to use UNDP’s Housing and Building Damage Assessment mobile app to rapidly determine the types, extent and causes of the damage. The tool helped the Ministry team assess 5,276 structures, generating quality data, including real-time geo-referenced reports, to inform resilient recovery plans.
Quality research informed by reliable data is a critical component of UNDP’s work. Perhaps the most significant plank in the resilience “architecture” came with the development of the Resilient Recovery Policy and Guidelines, a National Disaster Resiliency Strategy and Implementation Plan, and an Institutional Assessment Report, all approved by the Cabinet.
The Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) underscored the pivotal role of these developments, noting that UNDP’s collaboration has proven to be essential in The Bahamas’ resilient construction drive. "UNDP has played a vital role. First with assisting in the organization of the recovery effort and then with the creation of knowledge-based tools to aid in the long-term reconstruction," said DRA Chairman John Michael Clarke.
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On the ground, The Bahamas and UNDP partnered to get valuable “build better” knowledge into the hands of the people to set foundations for a culture shift. A mobile Technical Assistance Centre (TAC) in a repurposed RV was deployed to Grand Bahama, offering door-to-door home repair advisory services to reinforce “build better” tips, techniques and resources. It is the Caribbean’s first, based on a tripartite partnership model involving UNDP, Rotary Clubs of The Bahamas and the Disaster Reconstruction Authority. TAC teams conducted 309 home assessments for DRA on Grand Bahama and provided guidance to NGOs working on construction and rebuilding projects via 20 virtual consultations with Abaco.
Drawing from the Building Code, a user-friendly Guide to Housing Standards of The Bahamas was produced and distributed to demystify rules, procedures and key steps in resilient construction. An eight-part Build Smarter YouTube series brought the steps to life in a multimedia format. Participants in a six-part ‘Build Smarter’ webinar series interacted with panellists to clarify resilient construction dos and don’ts, while a model home put up in Marsh Harbour allowed residents can see hurricane resilient construction demonstrated on demand.
UNDP’s digital tool assessed 5,276 structures, generating data to inform resilient recovery plans.
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UNDP also supported immediate relief to affected persons while providing technical guidance to The Bahamas’ National Food Distribution Task Force. Through IdeaRelief, 2400 families – 65 percent of them headed by females – were supported with 15,305 food parcels. Through the Grand Bahama Red Cross, 4,500 meals were delivered to people with disabilities, the elderly and those confined to their homes, and 300 food parcels were delivered monthly to families in need.
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Looking long term to set up a resilient recovery skills pool, training was organized in mould remediation. “Mould was everywhere,” says Hamfrey Rahming, one of the 12 graduates. A teacher who lost his private school in the storm, he turned to his new skill to make ends meet. “After training we got a contract with Samaritan's Purse and were able to do the mould remediation for them, which lasted several months,” he said. “It was really a godsend… helping to support the family as it was difficult to find work.”
On Abaco, Pauline Saunders went to work helping neighbours in circumstances similar to hers. She was one of 300 people recruited through a cash-for-work programme to clean up debris dumped by Dorian, with the support of UNICEF and UNDP. “I’m disabled and I was not working, so the little job helped me out tremendously to have food,” she remembers. “We went to Treasure Cay. Before people got back in their place, we cleaned their yard, removing dirt and debris.”
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The losses suffered by micro, small and medium enterprises were also daunting. They represent 99 percent of The Bahamas’ business licenses, 18 percent of GDP and are expected to play a critical role in the future sustainability of The Bahamas economy. Some 2,500 of them were affected by the storm.
Mobilizing a best practice from its Turks and Caicos hurricane response, UNDP deployed small grants to support national economic jump start efforts. $107,500 in small grants were disbursed to 13 businesses in the food, construction and tourism sectors of Abaco and Grand Bahama, implemented by the Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), with $62 500 from UNDP and USD $45 000 from CORE. “All recipients have shown encouraging results especially improving revenue,” a final report indicates.
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Winfred Jane Mitchell, popularly known as “Winnie”, of Sweetings Cay, is one of the 13. She bought a generator and freezer with her grant and got her kitchen up and running within two months of the disaster. Faced with a downturn in tourist arrivals, she got creative and is now offering a variety of food packages to fellow citizens returning to the island.
Electrician Brian Reckley, based out of Murphy Town, shifted to servicing homes of low- and medium-income families and those in need of hurricane repair instead of his usual high-end clientele. With an expanded customer base, he soon got his revenues get back to pre-Dorian levels.
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"The stage is now being set for a hurricane resilient future for The Bahamas.” – Denise E Antonio, UNDP Resident Representative
With key plans, policies and needs assessments in place, The Bahamas is establishing a solid foundation on which to construct a resilient, risk-informed economy – one capable of withstanding crisis and able to rebound more quickly than in the past.
“UNDP stands ready to support the Government and people of The Bahamas in building on this foundational work by not only propelling the resilient recovery efforts to the next level, but also helping the country advance the Sustainable Development Goals for the benefit of all people,” Resident Representative Antonio said.
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