All in the Family: Hugo’s impact reflects racial, class divides by megan Underhill
“It was like a nuclear bomb exploded.” —Frandelle Gerard
“There was no green; all the leaves were gone.”—Olasee Davis “I didn’t have any concept of destruction until Hugo”—Dr. Valerie Combie The words Hurricane Hugo survivors on St. Croix use to describe the category-five storm sound like a well-rehearsed script, it echoes unchanged after 25 years. The category five hurricane cleared 90 percent of the homes on the 83-square-mile island, leaving none of its residents unscathed. Everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity or class, witnessed the same apocalyptic aftermath. Homes and businesses demolished. Cars upended. Boats resting on steep hillsides, miles from their docks. Winds of 160 mph stripped trees of their verdant, tropical leaves creating a brown, bombed out looking landscape. In the early hours after the storm, the island was eerily still and quiet; the persistent buzzing of yellow jackets, homeless without leafy protection, punctuated the yawning silence of the disaster-ravaged landscape. “Hurricane Hugo didn’t discriminate,” said H. Akia Gore, PhD, a sociology professor at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Croix who owned a pharmacy on the island when Hugo hit. “Everyone was impacted by the storm.” But recovery depended, in large part, on variables that islanders didn’t control. Families left or stayed on island based on those variables, which positioned them to view the same hurricane in vastly different ways. One island, many cultures “St. Croix is the only island in the Caribbean with seven flags” stated Olasse Davis, Professor of ecology at the University of the Virgin Islands. The seven flags to which Davis refers, are the flags of former (and current) island rulers; the Spanish, British, Dutch, French, Maltese, Danish, and since 1917, the United States. The imagery of the seven flags, or seven rulers, tells us something about the islands past but it ignores the islands greatest historical legacy -- the system of slavery that originally brought African descended peoples to St. Croix. African descended people have always constituted the largest ethnic/racial group on the island, however; hundreds of years of racial intermixing mean that most people of “Crucian” descent have African and European ancestors. Some, like Olassie Davis, even claim to have Caribe, or native islander ancestry. St. Croix remains a very diverse island. Many of the islands most recent immigrants, people from the East Caribbean, Palestine, and to a lesser extent the continental United States, were lured to the island because of the promise of work – either at the Hess oil refinery, a local business, or perhaps even a research lab. For other individuals, it was the fantasy of living in a tropical paradise, however briefly, that motivated them to establish residence in St. Croix. Who remained on St. Croix post-Hugo was in some ways determined by the strength of a family’s ties to the island itself. Individuals of Crucian descent, whose families had resided on the island for generations, were more apt to stay, while families of more recent origin – the job and adventure seekers -- many of whom were also middle-to-upper-class whites -- were more likely to depart St. Croix, either temporarily or permanently, in the wake of Hugo’s destruction. Interviews with Hugo-affected individuals revealed stark divisions in terms of how families were positioned to recover from the disaster. An individual’s class status, race, and residential ties to the continental United States, proved particularly influential in shaping an individual’s recovery experience. It also impacted whether individuals framed the disaster event as a positive or negative disruption in their family’s life. For example, Dennis Hubbard and his then fiancé, Karla Parsons left St. Croix and returned to the continental United States to continue their scientific work. [m1] Fierce winds ripped Dennis & Karla Parsons-Hubbard’s Christiansted home from its foundation, leaving only a concrete slab in the disaster’s wake. Their place of employment, the West Indies Laboratory, was also demolished by Hugo. It never reopened, which meant returning to the island just didn’t make sense. Within days of the disaster, fiancé and step-child boarded a plane to Wisconsin (?), where the fiance’s family lived. The father followed shortly thereafter. They did not renew residence on St. Croix. Cindy Mault, on the other hand, eventually returned to St. Croix. Mother and (5) children stayed at their beach home on the Delaware coast for the duration of the 1989-1990 school year and returned to the island after their home had been repaired and electricity restored. Cindy Mault faced difficulties being separated from her husband, a Hess oil-executive who remained on St. Croix for work. Raising five children mostly on her own exacerbated the challenges her children faced acclimating to their temporary residence in Delaware, a state that bore little similarity to the Caribbean island in which her children were born and raised. For both Cindy Mault and the Parsons-Hubbard family, Hugo remains a negative memory that re-shaped their families, adding emotional stress and damage to the physical destruction it entailed.. ‘Survival mode’ The post-Hugo experiences of middle-income Crucian natives and East Caribbean immigrants were markedly different. Most didn’t have the resources—financial or familial—to leave the wreckage and resettle elsewhere. So they stayed in what was left of their homes and neighborhoods. They made the best of their lives in the face of mounting obstacles and disaster-related challenges. Survivors recall that the first few weeks after Hugo were the most difficult. With only a small fraction of buildings still standing, families lived in tents made of sticks and blue FEMA tarps. They moved in with other family members, neighbors, and friends. Space was a luxury. Families of five crammed into one room. And forget about privacy, the lack of which added stress to families already coping with a myriad of challenges, according to Valerie A. Combie, PhD, an associate English professor at the University of the Virgin Islands. She worked as a family psychologist when Hugo hit and remembers that the lack of privacy triggered depression in residents unaccustomed to tight living conditions. “It was survival mode,” says Frandelle Gerard, the executive director of Cruzan Heritage And Nature and a ninth generation Crucian. With no stores, no electricity and no communication with the outside world, critical family needs took precedence. “People went out and picked up galvanized aluminum and pieces of wood to try and create some temporary structures.” Residents got creative. “You know, if they lost their roof, you could see a FEMA blue tent roof on a car,” she says. “You know you just kind of put things together however you could.” Survival and creativity often meant remembering how their relatives survived in generations past. “People went back to the old ways of cooking, washing clothes,” she says. It wasn’t an easy life. People had to wake up at 4 in the morning to draw water, start the stove, boil the water and prepare food. Laundry depended on a family scrub board. “If you had one of those, you were golden,” Gerard says. It takes a hurricane What emerged from the disaster was “a new way of life,” says Combie, who lived in Christiansted at the time. Not only did families have to go back to many of the “old ways,” such as cooking on coal pots and washing clothes by hand, but they also had to find sources for food and water – no mean feat in the wake of Hugo. During the early weeks post-Hugo, fresh water supplies were contaminated and food was in short supply—98 percent of St. Croix’s food arrived on the island via boats, which couldn’t reach the ports for two weeks after the storm. Stores were boarded up, closed or protected by armed gunmen who feared looters. Despite tight quarters and limited resources, survivors remember that while family bonds were strained, community bonds were actually strengthened. When food and water supplies were scarce, community members shared the resources they had; family, friends and neighbors helped each other survive. But Hurricane Hugo strengthened community bonds in other ways as well. Combie remembers how weeks and months without electricity (some families in Fredricksted didn’t get electricity until March or May of 1990) forged stronger connections between family, friends and neighbors. Boredom pushed people out of their homes and into their front yards or the homes of neighbors or friends. People cooked together and swapped stories. Survivors wistfully described the sense of solidarity that emerged from the wreckage of Hugo but also noted how it faded as recovery efforts wore on. “I haven’t seen anything like that since we got electricity,” Combie says. Gerard, of CHANT, puts it more bluntly. “That whole community coming together and really working together as one, we’re not doing that anymore,” she says. I am sure in the event of another catastrophe, we would pull together, but that sense of unity doesn’t exist right now.” Survivors share more than fond memories of post-Hugo community building. They also see the hurricane as an event that, in the end, benefitted their island home. “Buildings were rebuilt better,” says Combie, who refers to Hugo as a “blessing.” “Many of us were also compensated by insurance companies. They were very generous. We could rebuild and repay our mortgages. This brought people a sense of security. People were also able to rebuild bigger homes.” Gore, the professor turned-pharmacist, saw his family’s quality of life improve after Hugo, when his business became the only pharmacy on the island. “It did some marvelous things for me and my family.” Twenty-five years later Twenty five years after Hugo, people continue to speak emotionally of the disaster. For the middle class white families who moved to St. Croix for a research or employment opportunity, Hugo remained a painful event to reflect upon. Neither of these families had grown up in disaster-prone areas of the country. Nor had they or other members of their family, ever witnessed the complete and total destruction of their home, neighborhood, or city. Thus when Hugo hit, it was viewed as an aberrant anomaly that disrupted the daily rhythm of family life and (temporarily) ruptured families. Rather than frame Hugo as a disaster, Crucians and East Caribbean immigrants offered much more nuanced accounts of Hugo; many described the event as a blessing. Like their middle class white counterparts, they also viewed Hugo as a disruptive life event; no one enjoyed living in a damaged home without electricity for months on end. But unlike their non-native white counterparts, the disruption that ensued from Hugo wasn’t always remembered negatively. Hugo forced to slow down and engage in cooperative relations with family, friends, and neighbors. It was also a period in which community bonds were strengthened and local, cultural traditions (such as cooking in clay pots) revitalized. Generous insurance payments also helped – many families described being more financially secure after Hugo than they had been before. |
Trouble in the water: Natural vs. human impact on survival by Caitlin Stanley
Hurricane Hugo took out 90 percent of the buildings on St. Croix 25 years ago. But today, every day, the marine system around the U.S. Virgin Island faces a more potent and dangerous foe than any force of nature at its most violent: humans.
When nature strikes, nature heals
Hurricane Hugo’s impact stretched into the surrounding waters of the Caribbean. It damaged the natural diversity of the reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds as well as the fishing and tourism industries.
St. John recorded massive live coral loss after Hugo. “...the average percent of living coral cover decreased significantly, from about 20 percent to about 12 percent. This represents a percentage change in living coral of about 40 percent.” (Rodgers) Going from 20 percent of the bottom cover being coral into only 12 percent is drastic, but losing almost half of all coral in St. John’s water is even worse. In another study by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows that even 15 years later, no significant change in coral cover had been seen.
Some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world are found on and around the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Croix is one of the most diverse. “the coral reef system surrounding St. Croix is one of the largest and most developed in the Caribbean.” St. Croix accounts for more than 70 percent of the protected marine areas in the United States Virgin Islands, which does only consist of three islands, which equates to over 3 square miles in total.
Hugo wrought extreme damage on those areas. Part of the reef on the south side of Buck Island (Rich Berey) Moving reefs can change the areas in which some organisms live and thrive. Suddenly being pushed out farther means having to deal with stronger currents and possibly different predators, which could destroy more sensitive species. If the reefs are moved in or across an area, this could also subject the shoreline to more intense waves which would eventually erode the beach and shore. More than 15 feet of sediments in Salt River Bay were flushed out during the storm. (See Map Below) While uncommon, these outcomes had likely happened before.
http://www.travelvi.com/us-virgin-islands/st-croix-usvi/st-croix-usvi-beaches/st-croix-usvi-beaches.html
http://www.gotostcroix.com/st-croix-blog/stand-up-paddleboard-racing/
After a 12 month period, more data was taken from the same sites in St. John. This island is also within the U.S. Virgin islands and the information was taken after Hugo. Sadly, there is no information of this type and magnitude that was done on St. Croix, so this is a comparison. After a year, there was no large change in coral recovery. These animals take a long time to heal and repair themselves and their colonies. Seeing Buck Island now shows how much has changed. Larger stands of acropora, or Elkhorn coral which is also endangered, can be seen along the southern side of the island. Though it is not at the large capacity it once was, huge strives have been made to help these species.
Problematic predators
Federal protection of these delicate and fierce marine environments can’t stem other dangers that illustrate the ripple effect of human behavior on the natural world. Water’s movement makes mitigating and regulating human impact especially challenging. Illegal dumping from the shore out into the middle of the ocean is not always dealt with, and has a very detrimental effect on the ecosystems.
From mass bleaching of coral to the arrival of invasive species, human impact destroys in ways that have never occurred naturally before.
Climate change is one of the human impacts that is not only changing the ecosystems in St. Croix but the whole world. Bleaching of coral may always not kill the animal (yes, coral is an animal living inside of a plant) but it can easily destroy large outcroppings of endangered, sensitive species. Bleaching occurs when stressors rise to a level that the coral cannot withstand, whether that stressor is from climate change causing higher or lower temperatures and sometimes a chemical spill. Climate change is seen as the biggest threat to corals, due to the fact that they live within particular temperature ranges.
http://www.dontstoptalkingfish.com/#!charters/c20nd
The biggest threats to St. Croix’s water now, though, comes in the shape of a small and beautiful fish. In the past decade, release of pet lionfish into ocean waters off the coast of Florida led to an invasion in the Caribbean. The problem is as fierce as the fish that brought it: lionfish, which have no predators in the Cruzan waters, can produce 30,000 eggs every four days. The Indo-Pacific native fish, Lionfish, though fiercely beautiful, prove deadly to the fragile ecosystem.
The CORE Foundation formed to educate the public and develop strategies to eradicate the invaders. But problems persist. Local fishers hunt lionfish, but they don’t appeal to commercial fisherman, even though they are considered delicacies in other parts of the world. But lionfish in the Caribbean have a tendency to eat fish that have consumed infected coral, which means their meat can contain a toxic chemical.
http://www.corevi.org/home.html (Nadija’s Website)
http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/oceans/solutions/
Federally protected waters are designed to help keep coral healthy and protect marine life. Solutions include creating no fishing zones, recreational areas, monitored fishing zones, protecting breeding areas. But those solutions take funding..National Park Service representatives acknowledge that they barely have enough funding to have patrols during day hours. After 5 p.m., the reefs are fair game for fishers and others.
“They have told us that if we are not there to stop them, they will go there,” said David Goldstein, Public Interview, 9 October 2014. It is where they have been hunting for their whole lives.”
http://sugarbeachstcroix.com/blog/?tag=/Sea+Turtles
Newborn hawksbill sea turtles. From the moment each one is an egg until the end of its life, it will be critically endangered. That is if they make it to adulthood. Buck Island and St. Croix are safe havens for turtles during the nesting seasons, but if these areas were not protected they would be in worse shape. Having these areas means that they have a greater chance at coming back. Hurricanes may disrupt many animals and ecosystems, but nothing has matched the destructive power of our own species.
Humans alone have the power to fix what we have destroyed. Only we can choose to save these places rather than watch them crumble. Nature cannot recover from every single disaster, but it can sometimes find a way to bounce back. When something threatens the whole ecosystem in a way that it has never seen, however, chances of bouncing back lessen with each day that passes. Protecting these areas is a huge start to helping them, but more must be done if we want future generations to see the beauty earth shares. If we continue this path, one day, those generations will look upon reefs in books or on a website, and never again in person.
Works Cited:
http://www.coralreef.gov/mitigation/coralopportunity_coralnurseries.pdf
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/habitat_assessment/usvi.pdf
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/inadequate_protection/
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/eco_essays/virgin_islands/eco_stressors.html
Rodgers, Caroline S., Larry N. McLain, and Craig R. Tobias. "Effects of Hurricane Hugo (1989) on a Coral Reef in St. John, USVI." Marine Ecology Progress Series 78 (1991): 189-99. Inter-Research Science Center. Inter-Research Science Center, 16 Sept. 1991. Web. 8 Nov. 2014. <http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/78/m078p189.pdf>.
When nature strikes, nature heals
Hurricane Hugo’s impact stretched into the surrounding waters of the Caribbean. It damaged the natural diversity of the reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds as well as the fishing and tourism industries.
St. John recorded massive live coral loss after Hugo. “...the average percent of living coral cover decreased significantly, from about 20 percent to about 12 percent. This represents a percentage change in living coral of about 40 percent.” (Rodgers) Going from 20 percent of the bottom cover being coral into only 12 percent is drastic, but losing almost half of all coral in St. John’s water is even worse. In another study by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows that even 15 years later, no significant change in coral cover had been seen.
Some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world are found on and around the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Croix is one of the most diverse. “the coral reef system surrounding St. Croix is one of the largest and most developed in the Caribbean.” St. Croix accounts for more than 70 percent of the protected marine areas in the United States Virgin Islands, which does only consist of three islands, which equates to over 3 square miles in total.
Hugo wrought extreme damage on those areas. Part of the reef on the south side of Buck Island (Rich Berey) Moving reefs can change the areas in which some organisms live and thrive. Suddenly being pushed out farther means having to deal with stronger currents and possibly different predators, which could destroy more sensitive species. If the reefs are moved in or across an area, this could also subject the shoreline to more intense waves which would eventually erode the beach and shore. More than 15 feet of sediments in Salt River Bay were flushed out during the storm. (See Map Below) While uncommon, these outcomes had likely happened before.
http://www.travelvi.com/us-virgin-islands/st-croix-usvi/st-croix-usvi-beaches/st-croix-usvi-beaches.html
http://www.gotostcroix.com/st-croix-blog/stand-up-paddleboard-racing/
After a 12 month period, more data was taken from the same sites in St. John. This island is also within the U.S. Virgin islands and the information was taken after Hugo. Sadly, there is no information of this type and magnitude that was done on St. Croix, so this is a comparison. After a year, there was no large change in coral recovery. These animals take a long time to heal and repair themselves and their colonies. Seeing Buck Island now shows how much has changed. Larger stands of acropora, or Elkhorn coral which is also endangered, can be seen along the southern side of the island. Though it is not at the large capacity it once was, huge strives have been made to help these species.
Problematic predators
Federal protection of these delicate and fierce marine environments can’t stem other dangers that illustrate the ripple effect of human behavior on the natural world. Water’s movement makes mitigating and regulating human impact especially challenging. Illegal dumping from the shore out into the middle of the ocean is not always dealt with, and has a very detrimental effect on the ecosystems.
From mass bleaching of coral to the arrival of invasive species, human impact destroys in ways that have never occurred naturally before.
Climate change is one of the human impacts that is not only changing the ecosystems in St. Croix but the whole world. Bleaching of coral may always not kill the animal (yes, coral is an animal living inside of a plant) but it can easily destroy large outcroppings of endangered, sensitive species. Bleaching occurs when stressors rise to a level that the coral cannot withstand, whether that stressor is from climate change causing higher or lower temperatures and sometimes a chemical spill. Climate change is seen as the biggest threat to corals, due to the fact that they live within particular temperature ranges.
http://www.dontstoptalkingfish.com/#!charters/c20nd
The biggest threats to St. Croix’s water now, though, comes in the shape of a small and beautiful fish. In the past decade, release of pet lionfish into ocean waters off the coast of Florida led to an invasion in the Caribbean. The problem is as fierce as the fish that brought it: lionfish, which have no predators in the Cruzan waters, can produce 30,000 eggs every four days. The Indo-Pacific native fish, Lionfish, though fiercely beautiful, prove deadly to the fragile ecosystem.
The CORE Foundation formed to educate the public and develop strategies to eradicate the invaders. But problems persist. Local fishers hunt lionfish, but they don’t appeal to commercial fisherman, even though they are considered delicacies in other parts of the world. But lionfish in the Caribbean have a tendency to eat fish that have consumed infected coral, which means their meat can contain a toxic chemical.
http://www.corevi.org/home.html (Nadija’s Website)
http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/oceans/solutions/
Federally protected waters are designed to help keep coral healthy and protect marine life. Solutions include creating no fishing zones, recreational areas, monitored fishing zones, protecting breeding areas. But those solutions take funding..National Park Service representatives acknowledge that they barely have enough funding to have patrols during day hours. After 5 p.m., the reefs are fair game for fishers and others.
“They have told us that if we are not there to stop them, they will go there,” said David Goldstein, Public Interview, 9 October 2014. It is where they have been hunting for their whole lives.”
http://sugarbeachstcroix.com/blog/?tag=/Sea+Turtles
Newborn hawksbill sea turtles. From the moment each one is an egg until the end of its life, it will be critically endangered. That is if they make it to adulthood. Buck Island and St. Croix are safe havens for turtles during the nesting seasons, but if these areas were not protected they would be in worse shape. Having these areas means that they have a greater chance at coming back. Hurricanes may disrupt many animals and ecosystems, but nothing has matched the destructive power of our own species.
Humans alone have the power to fix what we have destroyed. Only we can choose to save these places rather than watch them crumble. Nature cannot recover from every single disaster, but it can sometimes find a way to bounce back. When something threatens the whole ecosystem in a way that it has never seen, however, chances of bouncing back lessen with each day that passes. Protecting these areas is a huge start to helping them, but more must be done if we want future generations to see the beauty earth shares. If we continue this path, one day, those generations will look upon reefs in books or on a website, and never again in person.
Works Cited:
http://www.coralreef.gov/mitigation/coralopportunity_coralnurseries.pdf
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/activities/habitat_assessment/usvi.pdf
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/inadequate_protection/
http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/eco_essays/virgin_islands/eco_stressors.html
Rodgers, Caroline S., Larry N. McLain, and Craig R. Tobias. "Effects of Hurricane Hugo (1989) on a Coral Reef in St. John, USVI." Marine Ecology Progress Series 78 (1991): 189-99. Inter-Research Science Center. Inter-Research Science Center, 16 Sept. 1991. Web. 8 Nov. 2014. <http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/78/m078p189.pdf>.