ABSTRACT
Dominica presents an interesting case study because a storm ravaged the island in 2017. Although the official death toll from Hurricane Maria was 27, almost 100% of Dominica’s population was displaced by it. The island is on the front lines of climate change and its potential to wipe the island off the map. It is that serious. In the hurricane’s wake, the prime minister vowed to become the world’s first disaster-resilient island. To understand whether the proposition is even feasible, one needs to examine the disaster risk governance context, pre-Hurricane Maria. In Dominica’s case, the lack of political will crippled disaster risk governance. The outdated and incomplete legislative context, the local governments’ lack of capacity, and the national government’s lack of drive for disaster risk reduction largely led to the catastrophe wrought by Hurricane Maria. The country’s experiences with disasters show that it needs to develop and nurture the hard and soft institutions to support disaster risk reduction.
