New research probes Hurricane Dorian aftermath, preparation and response
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government can no longer afford to be lax in its preparation and recovery strategies for natural disasters and must collaborate with the private sector, non-governmental organizations and individuals, according to the newly released edition of the University of The Bahamas’ (UB) research journal.
UB published its International Journal of Bahamian Studies (IJBS) Volume 27 on Friday with a featured section on “Hurricane Dorian: Impacts and Future Preparation”. Researchers concluded that a broader approach to collaboration is critical for disaster preparedness and responses in the face of climate change. These discussions are particularly relevant as the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is underway in Glasgow, Scotland.
“The government of The Bahamas can no longer be so lax in its preparation strategies for managing natural disasters,” wrote UB Associate Professor Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett and Assistant Professor Dr Saskia Furst.
“Private companies, non-governmental organizations and individuals will and must be included in both the preparation and recovery from such disasters, at national and international levels.
“Furthermore, support structures should be in place for those very volunteers and individuals who are directly and indirectly affected to alleviate the emotional and psychological trauma surviving and supporting survivors of such events can cause.”
Included in the Hurricane Dorian section of the IJBS is a study on the value of having volunteer groups assist the public sector in responding to national disasters through a close study of the core group. Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre Senior Research Fellow Dr Adelle Thomas, Librarian Cathleen LeGrand and Susan H Larson concluded that volunteers will inevitably be motivated to assist in the recovery of national climate disasters, so governments should integrate and effectively make use of this resource in emergency management systems.
Research by Nastassia Pratt entitled “The Responsibility of Community Sustainability from the Frontlines of Climate Change” analyzed the areas for adaptation capacity in housing, national systems of sheltering and evacuation pre- and post-hurricanes. It also assessed how vulnerable communities are particularly susceptible to injustices after natural disasters.
Bethell-Bennett’s research was an auto-ethnographic overview of the structural violence, slow violence, and spatial (in)justice facing “often silenced and unvoiced communities” due to Hurricane Dorian, entitled “Dorian Unmaking Space: Policy and Place and Dislocation”.
Among the original journal articles, “The Role of Leadership in Special Economic Zones” by Kemi Alexander Jones reviews relevant theories on leadership styles and uses a case study research method to develop a leadership profile of Edward St George compared to three of his immediate successors in leading the Grand Bahama Port Authority. Another, “Microplastics in The Bahamas: A Reconnaissance Quantifying the Prevalence on Selected Beaches in New Providence”, by Jonopia Andrea Fernander and Dr Kristen Welsh-Unwala, is a study of samples collected at Cabbage Beach, Goodman’s Bay and Montague Beach. Historian Jim Lawlor’s “Wrecked Emigrant Ships in The Bahamas: The Wreck of the Barque William and Mary” explores the wrecks of four emigrant ships in The Bahamas in the early 1850s.
Volume 27 of the IJBS is the largest in the journal’s 41-year history, according to editor Dr Raymond Oenbring. Other published research in the journal covers a broad range of topical research, with implications for a society that is still enduring the impacts of Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the challenges of climate change.
The journal also features several other original articles, reports on a living wage for The Bahamas and the first 20 years of UB’s Research Edge forum, a literature review and a section for additional commentaries and speeches.
The International Journal of Bahamian Studies Volume 27 is accessible at https://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files.
