Mr. Jeremy Collymore

Publication/source: Natural Hazards 121 (5), 5435-5470, 2025

Description / abstract: The Eastern Caribbean region experiences at least one major disaster yearly. Since 1990, the approximate cost of all disaster-related damage is an estimated US$160 billion. These disasters produce heightened concerns about the Caribbean and the importance of building disaster awareness and resilience, using integrated and systematic approaches for risk management, including analysing the perceptions of disaster. This multi-dimensional study analyses the perceptions of hazards, risks, and early warning systems across the Caribbean. A 40-item questionnaire was distributed in Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago to 600 persons; 416 completed questionnaires were collected. The results identified a gap between the high perception of risk and the lack of self-protective measures. This high perception, threat, and impact of disasters are not translating into …

Publication/source: New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 96 (3-4), 375-376, 2022

Description / abstract: June Carolyn Erlick’s Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean is an intriguing mix of the story of how hazard impacts society and the social issues that arise therefrom. Presenting this in a transitional stream of consciousness, she draws on participant observation and historical review to pose the big questions about what informs disaster risk management policy and practice. These questions are concerned with what is a disaster, what are the relationships between the social construct of society and the outcome of hazard impacts, how and under what conditions do community related initiatives survive, and how do disasters in themselves reshape the political and social order of the communities in which they interface. This may suggest a response to David G. Grove’s 2011 call for radical disaster research to unearth and mobilize subjugated knowledge of catastrophe and adaptation to change unjust …

Publication/source: Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 44 (1), 188-193, 2019

Description / abstract: Maria was also a Category 5 event when it impacted Dominica on September 18th with wind speeds of 155 mph. It also impacted St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and the Virgin Islands over the next two days. Of particular consideration was its rapid development to a major hurricane (Category 3) within 48 hours and subsequently to a catastrophic hurricane (Category 5) just 8 hours later (CDEMA 2017). Hurricane Maria–the last Hurricane to hit the region in the 2017 periodresulted in over $1 billion of damage as the most powerful winds to ever hit Dominica damaged over 90% of buildings. Irma and Maria were not unique with respect to the magnitude or the nature of destruction. However, they have signaled a regional consciousness on the need to not only talk about Climate Change but to also look at what it means for the resilience of our development. The link between disasters and development has long been recognised by Lewis (1955, p23) who notes that nature is not particularly kind to man but he can ward off the challenges through thought and action.

Publication/source: Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) report, 2016

Description / abstract: I would also like to thank the representatives of stakeholder organizations who made themselves available to discuss the perspectives on EWS programming, resourcing and direction. Special mention is made of the efforts of Marlon Clarke from UNDP and Rendal Allen from IFRC who ensured that the Desk Review was initiated and supported.

Publication/source: Environmental Hazards 10 (1), 6-22, 2011

Description / abstract: This paper is a reflective contribution on the issues and processes that have influenced and informed the development and institutionalization of disaster management practice and policy in the Caribbean over the last two and a half decades. It takes the viewpoint of a ‘participant observer’ and seeks to not only describe the events and triggers but also to raise some key questions necessary to chart the way forward.