When Disaster Strikes: What natural disasters reveal about racism and property

by Lauren Ritchie

How communities are left behind after disaster

The islands of The Bahamas are well renowned for their beaches and reef-lined coves, mangrove swamps, and all-inclusive resorts. In addition to its reputation as a tourist hub and diverse coastal ecosystem, however, The Bahamas is also known as an island nation that frequently suffers from strong hurricanes.

Growing up in The Bahamas, hurricane season was always a time of the year that was never taken too seriously, a time when residents would put up their shutters and students looked forward to a few missed days of school. In recent years, however, climate change has led to this season now being associated with fear and panic as our most recent hurricanes have devastated our country and been some of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.

On September 1st, 2019, Dorian struck the island of Abaco and the neighboring Grand Bahama island with sustained winds of 185mph and storm surges in excess of 23 feet in some areas. Dorian stalled over these islands for more than two days and its impact was among the worst that the nation had ever seen with over 70 deaths, hundreds missing, and totally destroyed communities.

Hurricane Dorian meant the fourth consecutive year of extremely devastating hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the damage that this natural disaster wrought in The Bahamas served as a grim reminder of the climate realities that island nations face. As global warming continues to increase the temperatures of the ocean waters, small island nations will continue to become more vulnerable to these increasingly frequent and damaging natural disasters. 

How "Natural disasters” have impacts that shouldn’t be viewed as ‘natural’ at all

Whilst many people think that natural disasters are “equal opportunity” catastrophes, the reality is that natural disasters impact different communities in different ways. Natural disasters tend to have a more negative and lasting impact on certain identity groups such as people of color, poor people, and disabled individuals.

In particular, events such as Hurricane Dorian highlight the existential threat posed to island developing states, that are largely comprised of people of color, by the ongoing climate emergency and illustrate that, for small island nations, climate change is not simply a distant threat or a rumor of impending doom – it is already here. 

Within the United States, sociologist Junia Howell, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an urban research scholar with Rice University, studied the aftermath of a disaster and found that white Americans who experienced a natural disaster had the highest predicted wealth accumulation of any racial or ethnic group.

Black Americans, on the other hand, had an overall loss of wealth when they experienced a disaster. She wrote, “If you’re white, over time, you’re actually going to accumulate more than if you never had that disaster in the first place. But for black people, for Latinos, for Asians — it’s not true.”

History behind differentiated impacts

This disparity can be largely attributed to systemic oppression in the forms of redlining and environmental injustice. Redlining is a real estate practice dating back to the 1930s that divided neighborhoods in the United States based on race, with the neighborhoods outlined in red to be comprised of people of color. Not only did this further perpetuate segregation but it also explains the lack of investment in communities of color, especially schools and housing infrastructure, as mortgage lenders would not give out loans in these neighborhoods and that prevented these neighborhoods from accumulating wealth.

As if that wasn’t enough, redlining was also used by companies to decide where to place hazardous sites and a 1999 study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences journal stated: “the redlining by banks can result in the disproportionate representation of undesirable land uses, such as deserted factories, warehouses, and landfills in segregated areas.

Persons who reside in segregated neighborhoods may also be disproportionately exposed to environmental toxins and poor-quality housing.” Thus, during a natural disaster, the proximity to waste sites creates further pollution for communities of color who must deal with the health consequences. This can be seen with Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina which impacted the groundwater and in Houston where hog waste traveled into the water supply and “dangerous gases” polluted the air. 

And it’s not just an issue around race, it’s socioeconomic status as well

Even beyond race, socioeconomic status (SES) is a major indicator of how a natural disaster will impact a community. During the preparation process, those with lower SES may have less access to supplies to protect themselves or they may not have the funds to evacuate and during the storm, people with lower SES are more likely to live in high disaster risk areas as they often have the cheapest prices.

Even further, this leads to those with lower SES to be more likely to become homeless, injured, or die in the event of a storm. Less financial resources also mean that these individuals have difficulty obtaining and receiving aid, lack of access to housing and possibly losing their jobs, lack of access to financial security nets like loans or insurance, and ultimately, these are the individuals that are most likely to suffer from mental health illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

What are we left to do next?

Natural disasters are daunting for everyone but, just like most cases of eco-anxiety, it’s important to recognize the ways that the effects of climate change have a great impact on people of different identities, especially during conversations that strive to promote an intersectional approach to climate adaptation and work towards amplifying the stories of marginalized communities that are heavily impacted.

More must be done in order to protect these communities and to ensure that they are given equitable access to supplies at all stages of the disaster and also, that there are resources available to help them in the aftermath, particularly financial resources, counseling, employment, and so much more! Stay safe everyone.

Lauren Ritchie is a Bahamian student, and avid animal lover, at Columbia University studying Sustainable Development and Political Science. She wants to increase representation of people of color in the climate conversation, particularly the Caribbean community.