On the 1st of September 2019, the Category 5 hurricane Dorian hit the Abaco islands in the northern Bahamas, with over 24 hours of extremely high sustained winds, with maximum strengths of 185 miles per hour. The effects of Dorian were compounded by the storm stalling over the islands, increasing the duration of the storm damage. As of mid September, Dorian has been estimated to have caused $7bn USD of damage and killed at least 50 people – with at least 2,500 people still missing.
Effective delivery of humanitarian aid is reliant on the co-operation of many groups and organizations, and the strategic nature of this response must appropriately adapt to the type of disaster faced and the specific community environment. In a situation such as a natural disaster, the initial devastation and loss of life are sadly all too often followed by incidences of infectious and non-infectious disease. Infrastructure of all types is usually damaged, with transport routes in to and within a country blocked or destroyed. When people and supplies cannot move in, the health of survivors declines.
Unlike the on-going Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the response to hurricane Dorian was swift, extensive and multinational. USAID reports that, in the almost three weeks since Dorian made landfall, international donors have given US$26mil to the response effort in the Bahamas. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency estimates that over 5,000 people have been evacuated from immediate danger, and almost 2,000 are in secure shelters. Although hospitals and medical facilities have been damaged and destroyed, organizations such as Samaritans Purse, Team Rubicon, USAID and the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance have set up several field and mobile hospitals, as well as bolstering the capacity of the country’s own hospitals.
The differences between the disaster response mounted in the Bahamas and the response to infectious disease epidemics, speaks volumes regarding how society views humanitarian crises and our capacity to respond to different types of crises. In the case of the Bahamas, the rapid commitment of international support has been so extensive that some facilities set up to provide medical assistance have refused donations because they already had more resources than they needed.
The massive extent of donations from governments, NGOs and private individuals has even caused concern amongst some humanitarian workers, prompting claims that the sheer influx of assistance is causing aid to be distributed in an uncoordinated and potentially damaging fashion. Reports of private aircraft flying in to small Bahamian islands carrying individuals distributing their own aid paints a heartening but potentially problematic picture. It is clear that a well-funded, rapid, international response is key to bringing any disaster under control; however, this response needs to be well coordinated to prevent waste of resources and to avoid potential damage to the communities from the response itself.
It is worth remembering that following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, over 15,000 humanitarian aid organizations responded with over $15bn USD donated to the response and recovery effort. However, it was estimated that less than 1% of donations funded or developed Haitian organizations and the massive influx of aid caused destroyed many of the local systems that it was designed to repair. For example, the volume of donated food meant that the once robust local agriculture system was now no longer financially viable, resulting in increased unemployment and a reliance on the international community for basic nutrition of the country. At present, over 80% of the country’s food still needs to be imported despite, or potentially because of, the extensive, but uncoordinated, international response.
A report by Cynthia Kao in the Huffington Post said “the way that the vast majority of aid was distributed goes to show that simply throwing money at a problem will not make it go away. Rather, there needs to be accountability in how aid groups spend their money; local involvement in the form of labor and decision making need to be an integral part of how aid organizations function.” Much has been learned in the international aid community following the Haiti disaster and it is hoped that these lessons will enable a more coordinated and community-centric aid response in the Bahamas. Research-Aid Networks is working with international and Bahamian organizations to facilitate this new approach to humanitarian aid and we will update you on the progress as the response develops.
