Natural and Social Effects of Major Hurricanes in the Greater Antilles.

The Caribbean Region experiences an average of 1.7 major Hurricanes each year, from which 1.6 include landfalls. However, the Caribbean Region is overlooked in many studies about hurricanes in the United States. These Hurricanes—category 3, 4 and 5—cost millions of losses in the islands’ population and biodiversity. Populations are affected directly or indirectly, with floods, diseases, deaths, lack of access to first needs and loss of belongings. Biodiversity is affected with the acceleration of natural process, landslides, floods, sand removal and decrease or increase in fauna. The goal of this study is to quantify and qualify the social and natural effects from hurricanes that overtake the Greater Antilles.

We studied the Caribbean region delineated by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and added the Bahamas, since they are overlooked in multiple analyses about hurricanes from the US and Caribbean. We then analyzed the hurricanes tracks, impacts and landfalls following the data from NOAA Hurricane Tracker to develop a climatology for the period of 1987 through 2017. Additionally, we read many analyses and articles about diverse effects of hurricanes in the Caribbean islands.

The results for the biodiversity analyses show, for example, that the species that had a higher decrease after hurricanes Maria in Puerto Rico were nectarivores since their feeding depends on flowers, which 80% were wiped out by the strong winds. On the same hand, the species with higher increase were insectivores, also due to their feeding habits, because of the lack of shelter after the hurricane.

Finally, we compared the preparations, education and deforestation in the islands and analyzed the effects in relation to the characteristics of each hurricane. Integrating this information, we can conclude that social vulnerabilities like poverty, lack of access to education, development without space for nature and poor preparedness from emergency management and big agencies perpetuate or aggravate the negative effects. Reducing the percentage of population living under poverty is a necessary step forward to increase the resilience of the islands, since that also affects the deforestation and the expose of population to hazards.