COVID COMPLICATIONS

Finding ways to ramp up the capacity of the region's often limited health infrastructure is also crucial given many facilities face being overwhelmed by COVID cases and would not cope with the additional pressure of a disaster, said experts.

But once the hurricane season picks up, countries need to find ways to limit COVID contagion and maintain social distancing rules for people evacuated to emergency shelters, said cuban meteorologist José Rubiera.

"We will have passed the peak when the hurricane season arrives", said the meteorologist. "In the active season, after August, the situation will be different but you will still have to take (virus) precautions, he added".

The heavy economic cost of COVID could mean governments have less money to stockpile ahead of a hurricane and fund recovery if their country is badly hit, said Jackson.

HEAVY COST

Many countries were preparing themselves for this year's hurricane season by boosting capacity, improving deployment plans, logistics, supply chains and communications, he said.

Jamaica and St. Lucia were among those reducing their financial risk through a mix of facilities such as contingent credit, funds from the national budget and insurance mechanisms.

The risk now is that the COVID-19 crisis gnaws away at emergency funds in place to deal with a hurricane while international donor money for surge financing and appeals becomes much harder to find, he said.

"It really is around how much you've had to draw down to tackle this particular crisis before the next crisis comes", said Jackson.

Going forward, better coordination between Caribbean governments, multilateral organisations, the private sector and communities is essential to strengthen the region and position it to recover quickly from future disasters, said Cotte.

"We need to create a region in the Caribbean and the Americas in which everyone is resilient, everyone is well prepared", he said. "We are living in a region that is full of vulnerabilities and problems and COVID is proving the point, it's putting everyone in the same page".

Country & Region

Barbados