ABSTRACT

On September 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall in The Bahamas, demonstrating the destruction anticipated from intensifying storms in a future of climate change and highlighting the need to design more resilient communities that can better prepare for, respond to and recover from extreme events. Although The Bahamas is familiar with hurricanes, the impacts of Hurricane Dorian were beyond what residents had experienced in the past, changing the way survivors will prepare for hurricanes in the future. This chapter draws upon firsthand evidence collected through interviews with displaced Hurricane Dorian survivors and Bahamas-based disaster response organizations to explore how Hurricane Dorian shifted the hurricane subculture in The Bahamas and the implications this has on community resilience. The findings suggest that disaster management in The Bahamas should be adapted to anticipate and respond to mass displacement in the future and will need to adapt to shifts in hurricane subcultures.