Hurricane Matthew – How storms change our policies Pt.1

**An edited version of this blog post has been featured on Emergency and Disaster Management Digest - Hurricane Matthew: An Ill Wind Triggers Policy Change Opportunities

A decade ago, we would have called Hurricane Matthew a 100-year storm. It is now one of the strongest, deadliest and most destructive hurricanes in 52 years to make landfall.

Rising temperatures and sea levels demonstrate that we can no longer expect storms with the intense impact of Hurricane Matthew to occur every 100 years. Instead, we can expect storms to become more intense as global warming continues, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Hurricane Matthew already surpassed meteorological records, based on the length of time it remained a hurricane, how quickly it developed into a Category 4 hurricane and the time of year it made landfall. We haven’t even begun to estimate the records this hurricane may surpass based on the economic impact to the areas it affects.

With respect given to the loss of life and livelihoods, there is still an opportunity that occurs after an intense storm like Hurricane Matthew. This storm provides a useful opportunity to assess the public’s storm response and information sharing between public, emergency professionals and government authorities. It is also a way to measure how effective preparations are in both private and public sectors.

Most of all, Hurricane Matthew allows us to assess how natural disasters can advance policy changes that become glaringly necessary after storm damage.

How Storms Like Matthew Create Opportunities for Policy Change

Intense storms make everything worse. Even when intense storms do not make landfall, societal issues are potentially worsened and intensified. These storms propel solutions to problems through the opportunities that follow the heightened visibility of those societal issues. Storms which propel solutions are considered a focusing event which creates a policy window of opportunity.

Opportunities for change through a policy window occur when political discussion, problems articulated through mass media and public comments, and public record policies all converge to create documented discussions and policy-driven solutions. This convergence creates a cohesive and informed opportunity for governments to implement new and effective policies.

The Barbados Example – Near Miss and National Shutdown

In its’ early stages, Hurricane Matthew was a slow moving tropical storm which first had a minimal impact on the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados. Prior to landfall, the government made the decision to establish a national shutdown which requested the closing of most businesses, government offices and public transportation.

The national shutdown began at 6 p.m. on September 27, but the first rainfall didn’t occur until midday on September 28. The most visible storm impacts included flooding, coral reef damage, littered beaches and damaged trees.

Some businesses made the decision to remain open or re-open. That led to public scrutiny about the safety risk posed to employees.The economic impact of this shutdown dominated the Barbadian press for a week. Barbadian economist Jeremy Stephen estimated that Barbados lost $22 million of its gross domestic product during the day of the national shutdown, but he also assured the public that the shutdown was still the best choice based on the capacity of the country’s “Catastrophe Fund” and the potential loss of life.

Businesses did lose income and workers lost pay, but no lives were lost as a result of the storm. However, the country’s reaction to a best-case scenario of economic impact rather than a Category 4 hurricane raised questions about the private sector’s resiliency, the effectiveness of public sector information dissemination and the efficiency of mass media communication.

Despite Hurricane Matthew’s Damage, Better Policies Could Follow Its Impact

The full scope of Hurricane Matthew’s impact on the Caribbean and America’s southeastern coast is yet to be determined. Although storms like Hurricane Matthew do a significant amount of damage, they are a testing lab for assessing policy effectiveness and solution oriented public engagement. Explore more in Part 2 of this blog where we focus on waste management by using the example of Barbados - home to the first U.N. conference and policy on sustainable development for small island developing states (U.N. Barbados Programme of Action,1994)