Tragedy struck the poorest of the poor in the Bahamas back in September of 2019 in the form of a monster Category 5 hurricane!
On September 1st, in the northwest Bahamas residents of the Harbour’s shantytowns of Mud and Pigeon Pea encountered the incredible wrath of Hurricane Dorian. They are all part of Great Abaco Island. One can easily make the argument that history was changed forever for hundreds of residents who inhabit these locations.
I became aware of this situation from a series of tweets that were posted about Mud and Pigeon Pea on Twitter by Sean Breslin (@Sean_Breslin) in the aftermath of the hurricane. Sean is an excellent writer and editor who I had the pleasure of working with when I was a contractor for weather.com a few years ago.
Mud and Pigeon Pea is mainly inhabited by Haitian immigrants who moved to the Bahamas to better their lives (if you can imagine that).
Almost all of these residents were living under incredibly harsh conditions without basic necessities. To make matters worse, Haitian immigrants have been treated as second-class citizens at best.
In fact, the Bahamian government has been developing a plan to knock down dwellings in these areas. No matter what had been going on before September 1st, the fate of these towns and their inhabitants had been changed forever. What they will be changed to is a question that I can’t answer and it could become difficult to find out.
Background
Haitian immigrants have been moving to the Bahamas for centuries for various reasons. In the 1970s, many Haitians departed as refugees to flee the “reign of terror” inflicted by President Jean Claude Duvalier, nicknamed “Baby Doc”. Some of these refugees came to the United States and others fled to the Bahamas.
A significant number of Haitians who went to the Bahamas inhabited an area in the town of Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco Island. A road and a softball field separated two shantytowns within Marsh Island that became known as Mud and Pigeon Pea. The Mud received its name because it was a low-lying area that often floods when heavy rain moves in. Pigeon Peas are a perennial legume that has been routinely harvested by Haitian immigrants in the area.
By 1980, several dozen shanty houses were scattered around the area. Many Haitian migrants took agricultural jobs for large companies that no one else wanted to do. When the large companies moved out, many migrants went to work on private farms across the island.
In the subsequent decades, the shantytowns grew in size. Living conditions became crowded and they were literally unfit for humans. Most residents have been living at or below the poverty level. The streets were strewn with wires as some residents and business owners attempted to connect to an electrical grid.
Much of the electricity that was used for lighting was obtained illegally and that posed a definite fire danger. In fact, fires have been a persistent problem for many years. Most homes were constructed illegally and they were well below existing building codes.
Since Haitian migrants are undocumented, the government has conducted a number of raids in recent years to round up the undocumented immigrants and send them back home. Anxiety has always run high in this community.
Policy Changes
In 2019, the government of the Bahamas conducted surveys of the shantytowns in order to demolish them. An article in the abaconian, which is a newspaper publication, gave this description of the situation on August 29th.
In The Pigeon Peas, a report indicated that there are 300 residences and 30 commercial shops, and of those homes, 150 had septic tanks, and 15 made use of outside toilets.
In The Mud, which is the biggest of the three predominantly Haitian communities, there are 600 residences and 45 commercial shops. There are 100 septic tanks and six outside toilets.
Researchers said that “Many of the long-term shantytown occupants express those new arrivals do not have the same reverence for proper hygiene and respect for law and order, resulting in the decline of the towns.”
Noting how these communities operate outside of the requirements for proper sanitation, without regard to the building code and in violation of safety requirements for electricity, Minister Dorsett said that he remains concerned about the possibility of diseases such as cholera being born because of the unsanitary disposal of human and other forms of waste.
There were specific plans slated for Mud and Pigeon Pea but that became a moot point after the hurricane.
Here is another description of the situation that was published in the Nassau Guardian.
Abaco has at least three major shantytowns – the Mudd, Pigeon Peas, and Sandbanks. The Mudd and Pigeon Peas have no legal electricity, water, or sewerage connections. Ed Newell, a broker based in Abaco, told The Nassau Guardian earlier in 2019 that if you drive by the area at night, it’s “lit up”.
There are small food stores, clothing stores, barbershops, and apartments in the area. Reportedly, it costs $60 a week to rent a one-room dwelling.
According to a shantytown report compiled under the Christie administration in 2013, the Mudd and Pigeon Peas had 900 homes, and Sandbanks had over 100. Some residents in the Mudd said they were not sure what they would do if the government destroyed the community. Tellis Doetelen, 63, a seven-year resident of the Mudd, told The Guardian in early 2019, “I built that little home because I can’t pay no rent. “Tear it down, but I don’t know where I would go. I do not know because I don’t have any money.”
I think that you get the idea. Their situation was dire. How could it POSSIBLY get any worse? That question looked pretty easy to answer until September 1st when the unthinkable occurred.
A photo showing dwellings in the shantytown of Mud on Great Abaco Island before Hurricane Dorian destroyed the area, Photo Credit-YouTube
The “Improbable” Hurricane – Total Destruction
Over the last several days of August 2019, a tropical cyclone named Dorian was being tracked across the western Atlantic. Dorian arrived in the Virgin Islands as a Category 1 hurricane and it began to strengthen. The forecast was for it to strengthen even more and that it could pose a threat to the northwest Bahamas as its forward speed slowed considerably.
It should be mentioned that up to that point Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin were rare. The frequency of them has increased dramatically in recent years. The highest wind speed for any Atlantic Basin hurricane at the time was Allen in 1980 as it was parked over the Gulf of Mexico. As Hurricane Dorian approached the northwest Bahamas it was a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph. No hurricane of this intensity had made landfall in the Atlantic Basin in recorded history. No hurricane of this intensity had ever stalled over any landmass either but in this case, BOTH occurred at the same time.
A satellite image of Category 5 Hurricane Dorian as it stalled over the northwest Bahamas on September 1, 2019. Photo Credit-NOAA
For hour after hour after hour, Great Abaco Island and the town of Grand Marsh, which included Mud and Pigeon Pea, were battered by incredible winds. Debris from collapsing structures was being hurdled through the air. The sheets of rain were relentless. An incredible storm surge sent the surrounding ocean over the land and swallowed up anything that the wind didn’t destroy.
I can’t imagine experiencing those conditions. Some described residents swimming for their lives or clinging to rooftops, doing anything to stay alive. There were reports of bodies floating in the water. The scene was described as chaotic with people moving in every direction with some of them carrying children or the elderly looking for ANY place of safety. Ironically, the eye of the hurricane passing over the area actually saved lives as winds calmed down for several hours.
As a result, some residents had the time to find their local primary school or a government building which became makeshift shelters. When the other side of the hurricane arrived. Hurricane conditions went on and on and it probably felt like it would never end.
When it was over, those who survived were in a state of shock. There was nothing left, many were looking for their loved ones. The following tweet was posted by Elizabeth Pears, a News Editor for BuzzFeed UK.
Hurricane chaser Josh Morgerman was there in Grand Marsh during the storm and he later posted this on Twitter.
Josh was rescued and was transported to Nassau. He then returned to Great Abaco by helicopter and posted this tweet.
The United States Military sent Coast Guard personnel and Marines to help with rescue and recovery operations. Crews methodically sorted through the rubble and searched for survivors or bodies. International organizations like the Red Cross delivered food, water, and other necessities to areas that were devastated
The death toll in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian was at least 70. Because many residents of the shantytowns were undocumented, we will likely never know the total number.
An Uncertain Future
There is no way of knowing what would have happened if the Bahamian government had gone ahead with the demolition of the shantytowns. The process could have taken months or even years. Hurricane Dorian was able to accomplish that in two days.
Since then, the prevailing policy of the Bahamian government was to demolish most of the shantytowns but a Supreme Court injunction prevented that from happening. In early 2023, however, Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson ruled that the government’s shantytowns eradication policy and its actions in seeking to execute it were legal.
As for the residents, their homes, their businesses, and the lives of some survivor’s family members have been obliterated. The psychological harm may be irreversible. It remains to be seen if the government, as a result of the recent Supreme Court decision will decide to demolish most of the shantytowns.
The government continues to favor the limitation of immigration. For example, over the past year, some 3,500 immigrants from Haiti have been sent back home.
The situation is ongoing and uncertain. The scars from this monster hurricane continue with an extremely slow healing. Difficult times for these areas lie ahead in any case.
