Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
able 4.2
Percentages of the North Atlantic/Caribbean, east Pacific and Australian (southwest Pacific) cyclone areas
showing increases, decreases or no change in cyclone activity (a) over 1962-89 (1962- 86 in the Pacific regions) and (b)
in 1980-89 (1977-86 in the Pacific regions) compared with the rest of the period.
Source:
After Eyre and Gray 1990.
again inundated by a storm surge, with 200,000
deaths, mostly on the offshore islands of the delta
(Smith 1997). The impacts of future cyclones in
the region are likely to increase given the high
rate of population increase (Stoddart 1987), high
sedimentation rates with Himalayan deforestation
and predicted sea level rise with global warming
(Smith 1997).
Human impacts of a cyclone (as with most
extreme climatic events) and human responses
and adjustments to cyclones and cyclone risk
vary greatly with the socio-economic
characteristics of the country (Table 4.4) (Box
4.2). Loss of life, injuries, destruction of homes
and livelihood, and susceptibility to longer-
term problems of famine, disease and
readjustment tend to be greatest in less
developed societies with high-density rural
populations, such as in Bangladesh; in more
developed societies, economic losses in
monetary terms are much greater (because
families and businesses have so much more to
lose) but, because of better warning systems
and (in the USA) better evacuation systems
and building design, few lives tend to be lost
and homes tend to be damaged rather than
destroyed (Smith 1997). In assessing rural
damage, it is important to consider not only
the ability of different land uses to withstand
high winds but also the ease with which they
can be replanted and come back into
production following a hurricane. In the West
Indies, one of the advantages of banana
production as perceived by the farming
community is that, although bananas are the
most easily devastated of crops by wind, they
are also easily re-established and can produce a
regular farmer income less than a year after a
hurricane (Walsh 1998). Thus in Dominica the
value of exports (mostly bananas) following
Hurricane David in 1979 had overtaken 1978
levels by 1981 (Collymore 1995). In more
developed countries, 'spread-the-cost'
measures tend to be much more effective.
Building and crop insurance is more widely
adopted, and national subsidies from the rest
of the population in terms of emergency aid
programmes tend to aid rebuilding and
readjustment.
Impacts of extreme events are not always
adverse. They can offer a chance for a complete
reorientation of an economy. Thus, in Grenada,
Hurricane Janet in 1955 hastened the widespread
adoption of bananas by destroying the ailing
nutmeg and cocoa plantation economy of the
island and leading to a sudden substantial
