I experienced my first Eastern Caribbean tropical storm last night. We were advised days in advance of its arrival and informed the heart was to hit us around 8 pm Thursday night. Government offices closed as of 1 pm yesterday to allow for folks to get home safely. I worked from home Thursday as schools were closed and bus service to downtown Castries erratic. When I walked up to the grocery store at lunch time yesterday to get some potatoes and lentils to make stew, the atmosphere was calm, although my director later advised me not to take that as any indication of whether the storm would be serious or not. There was no hoarding of toilet paper, water or booze. The candy aisle was little crowded as folks grabbed a few chocolate bars or sweets to ride out the storm, and I noticed probably every other person had a small bottle of rum included with their necessities. As I told Tod, who was panicked and watching all his weather apps from Canada, it was a little like an imminent snow day had been announced except there was a lot of “stay safe” and “take care” pleasantries being exchange with sincerity and the knowledge that we were all in God/Mother Nature’s hands and in this shared moment together.

I lost my internet connection at about 9:30 that night, just as I was getting hooked on Apple’s new Crowded House series, so I went to bed and listened to eerie screech and howl of the wind most the night. The expected downpour never hit the north of the island where I am, but south of me, where the infrastructure is more rustic, people’s homes had their roofs destroyed and had to seek lodging in the nearby shelters.

My BC Wildfire emergency response brain kicked in as the storm approached, and idly waiting for the storm made me feel useless. I was pleased to receive an email from my director at Gender Affairs explaining that our department, should it be required, would be responsible for distributing Dignity Kits to affected women post disaster. Attached to her email was a PowerPoint training module on GBV (gender-based violence) and a manual for kit distribution protocols.

I’ve always found the names of hurricanes and tropical storms somewhat curious. That such a devastating force of nature is given a name like Cindy, Colin or Nicole. It reminds me of a moment decades ago when I pulled into the carport of my townhouse in Janes Bay after work one day and the five-year-old boy Grayson ran up to me and excitedly told me he had just gotten a new goldfish. I asked him what he had named, and he smiled broadly and said “Gary”. I laughed at the unexpectedly weighty name of such a tiny creature.

As the temperature of our oceans rise, hurricanes are becoming more intense and more frequent. The Atlantic Ocean hurricane-naming system has been around since 1953 when an international committee organized by the World Meteorological Association began choosing the names for hurricanes and tropical storms. Up until 1979, tropical storms were always given feminine names, however now they alternate between masculine and feminine.

The naming of storms helps officials communicate clearly about them to the public. The names are predetermined and proceed in alphabetical order, omitting Q, U, X, Y and Z. The names for 2023 are in the table below:

Names are repeated every six years, but the names of especially severe storms that result in a lot of death and destruction are retired from use. For example, “Katrina” has been retired and will never be used again.

According to a May 2023 Saint Lucia Times article, the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecasted between five and nine major storms could become hurricanes this season. Among those, NOAA forecasts one to four could become categories three to five – with winds of at least 178kmh, or 111mph.

I am well prepared. If anything, Bret was an opportunity for me figure out what I need to do differently for the next storm, i.e., do my laundry before the storm arrives because I’ll likely be without running water for days afterward, and download some movies because the Wi-Fi will surely fail for an unpredictable length of time.