Hurricane Maria, which took place in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Dominica on September 20, 2017, is believed to be one of the most devastating natural disasters of the 21st century, taking the lives of 64 people, according to the official death poll. It was a tropical cyclone hurricane that compounded the consequences of another Hurricane Irma, which took place 2 weeks earlier. Hurricane Irma, which preceded Hurricane Maria led to damage to the roads, transportation system, electricity, and access to water, food, and medical supplies. The Hurricane Maria is included in the Category 5 Hurricanes according to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, which is the highest category on the scale. The overall estimated damage from this tropical cyclone was $90 billion and is believed to be one of the most expensive damages done to the United States in the 21st century (“Tropical cyclones”, 2021). Despite the fact that the official number of deaths is 64, according to the Harvard Chan School paper, the actual number of deaths from Hurricane Maria is 70 times higher than the official estimate (Kishore et al., 2018).
A tropical cyclone is a phenomenon of nature that has disruptive consequences and poses a threat to people’s lives and property even in its initial stage of development. They are usually combined with other natural disasters as well, such as flooding, extreme winds and storms. A tropical cyclone represents a rotating storm that starts to develop in the tropical oceans. It has a low-pressure center, called an ‘eye’ that has no clouds and calm weather and is surrounded by the clouds spiraling around this ‘eye’. The diameter of a cyclone can range from 200 to 500 km, reaching its maximum observed diameter of 1000 km (“Tropical cyclones”, 2021). The tropical cyclone’s winds rotate counterclockwise or clockwise in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively. Tropical cyclones that take place in areas of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the North Atlantic Ocean and the eastern and central North Pacific Oceans are called “hurricanes”. The winds from tropical cyclones can reach the speed of 300km/h and sweep everything away on their way (“Tropical cyclones”, 2021). Hurricanes bring massive destruction to the community affected by them, damaging transportation systems, electricity, and telecommunication, interrupting water and food supplies, and, more significantly, leading to the population loss.
Hurricane Maria primarily originated from the African easterly tropical wave on September 10, and within the next 30 hours, underwent a dramatic intensification, jumping from a category 1 to category 5 hurricane (“Tropical cyclones”, 2021). Starting on the African coast, it was able to reach the Lesser Antilles on September 18, causing landfall on Dominica. While the hurricane itself was a hazard-driven disaster that was not influenced by human force, the rainfall that preceded the hurricane was worsened by the climate change caused by people (Keellings & Hernandez Ayala, 2019). This massive rainfall led to catastrophic flooding and landslides in Puerto Rico. According to the research by David Keellings (2019), the anthropogenic climate change is to blame for the extreme amount of precipitation and rainfall.
This natural disaster was a reason for the desperate humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. The most affected part of the population after Hurricane Maria was the poorest residents, as well as people living in the rural areas and mountains. As they did not have enough provisions and supplies and were located further from the residential areas, they found it more challenging to recover and rebuild facilities (Kishore et al., 2018). Moreover, the elderly and socially vulnerable people who mainly depended on the welfare system suffered the most from the aftermath of the disaster. The research says that children and youth were mainly affected psychologically, and it took some time for them to fully recover from the fear that they experienced (Orengo-Aguayo et al., 2019). In addition, because of the closure of public schools and educational institutions, the schoolchildren, as well as college and university students, suffered from the absence of access to education for at least 5 weeks (Knight, 2017). This fact vastly affected the level of education in Puerto Rico.
Furthermore, due to the unpreparedness of the government and local authorities, the remoteness of the area, and geographical factors such as the presence of mountains as well as lack of governmental support, the population of Puerto Rico was even more vulnerable to the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. Federal resources were not enough to combat the aftermath of the massive destruction, and no aid from other states was provided because of the distance and the lack of a mutual response (“Puerto Rico a year after Hurricane Maria,” 2021). In addition, as the local municipalities did not expect the magnitude of the hurricane to be on such a scale, they did not possess enough resources and supplies to provide their residents with basic necessities and medical care.
Unfortunately, the government’s response to the hazard’s consequences was not sufficient and prompt. According to the research done by Jose Rivera (2020), local authorities and other agencies did not conduct all the necessary DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) procedures during all stages of the hazard development, before, during, or after the disaster. Moreover, the situation worsened due to the magnitude of the catastrophe and the initial financial struggle that Puerto Rico faced. From the reports by FEMA and AEMEAD, the level of preparedness to the Hurricane Maria was also inadequate (Rivera, 2020). The emergency management process during Hurricane Maria was not sufficiently funded as a number of other hazards also took place in the United States. The emergency management process was assessed based on the four stages mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. In terms of preparedness, the local authorities did not follow the Catastrophic Plan and overestimated their level of preparedness and security (Rivera, 2020). As they easily tolerated Hurricane Irma, which was expected to have much worse consequences than it actually did, the Puerto Rican officials just mobilized a part of the Puerto Rican population. The sense of urgency as well did not properly address the severity of the hurricane as well.
In the case of the mitigation process, the Puerto Rican government again failed to follow its Mitigation Plan properly. The collapse of the infrastructure in Puerto Rico demonstrates that the local authorities did not prioritize the mitigation plan procedures and overlooked an essential part of this plan. Particularly, the insufficient maintenance of the power grid in Puerto Rico led to its failure during the hurricane (Rivera, 2020). In addition, all of the stages were not sufficiently funded by the FEMA and the financial damage done by the hazard in Puerto Rico was underestimated.
In order to prevent such tremendous consequences from hurricanes and other tropical cyclones, the local government should follow its Catastrophic and Mitigation plans fully. In other words, there should be a sufficient level of preparedness in the face of approaching disaster, such as infrastructure maintenance, the sense of emergency and mobilization of the whole population. The local authorities should determine the potential risks posed by the hurricane and prepare enough supplies for the case of an emergency (Schultz et al., 2018). In addition, there should be implemented adequate mitigation measures such as the application of building standards for hurricane winds, planting of windbreaks, and building facilities farther from the places where potential floods and storm surges may happen (Schultz et al., 2018). All of these steps require the government to gather a large number of records from previous years as well as allocate huge resources like time and money. However, spending some time and funds on the appropriate emergency management process and other DRR procedures will result in fewer levels of population loss and financial damage.
References
Keellings, D., & Hernandez Ayala, J. J. (2019). Extreme rainfall associated with Hurricane Maria over Puerto Rico and its connections to climate variability and change. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 2964-2973.
Kishore, N., Marques, D., Mahmud, A., Kiang, M. V., Rodriguez, I., Fuller, A., Ebner, P., Sorensen, C., Racy, F., Lemery, J., Maas, L., Leaning, J., Irizarry, R. A., Balsari, S., & Buckee, C. O. (2018). Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. New England Journal of Medicine, 379(2), 162-170. Web.
Knight, P. (2017). Hurricane Maria aftermath: Children’s education on hold in Dominica. UNICEF.
Orengo-Aguayo, R., Stewart, R. W., De Arellano, M. A., Suarez-Kindy, J. L., & Young, J. (2019). Disaster exposure and mental health among Puerto Rican youths after Hurricane Maria. JAMA Network Open, 2(4), e192619.
Puerto Rico a year after Hurricane Maria. (2021). Amnesty International.
Rivera, J. (2020). A content analysis on the phases of emergency management for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal (URJ), 11(1), 1-7.
Shultz, J. M., Shepherd, J. M., Kelman, I., Rechkemmer, A., & Galea, S. (2018). Mitigating tropical cyclone risks and health consequences: Urgencies and innovations. The Lancet Planetary Health, 2(3), e103-e104.
Tropical cyclones. (2021). World Meteorological Organization.