3.3.2. Perception of the effects of hurricane David

Questions were acted to find out people's personal views on how their households had been affected by the disaster. Such questions elicit highly subjective answers but they are valuable in indicating broad areas of hardship which could be reduced on a future occasion by sensitive disaster planning.

The views expressed are those of the respondants to the questionnaire, and, although they were asked to take their whole household into account when replying, their opinions are not necessarily typical of the whole population. As far as possible field-workers were asked to interview household heads and this was done in two-thirds of cases. But where this was impracticable, they had to select any responsible householder with the appropriate knowledge. As a result, very few respondents were under 20, just over two-thirds were in the active age groups 20-59 and a quarter were over 60. Over 60 % were women.

The questions asked in this section were open-ended.

Questions :

"What were the worst shines that happened to you and your family at the time of the disaster and in the first week afterwards ?"

and

"What have been the worst things over the last eight months as far as your family is concerned ?" In each case, respondants were asked to name up to three things, listing them in order of importance. In this report, we deal only with the most important point mentioned by each household.

Table 11: Perception of Events at the Time Of and Immediately After the Disaster

The worst things that happened	% people affected
Damage to house, no home	53
No food	11
Damage caused by water (rain and flood)	6
Bad health (sickness and injury)	6
Shock, fright, worry	5
Loss of crops	4
Furniture and personal effects lost	3
No water or only dirty water supply	1
Nothing, nothing special	4
Other	7
TOTAL (n = 5977)	100

As shown in fable 11, for over half the population the worst immediate result of the disaster was the damage to their houses and, associated with this, damage to furniture and personal effects. Second in importance was the lack of food. health problems were the main worry for only a small minority and were almost equalled in importance by the problems of shock and anxiety.

Table 12: Perception of Events 8 Months After the Disaster

The worst things that happened	% people affected
No money, rise in prices	18
Damage to house, no home	16
The wrong kind of food to eat	13
Bad health	7
No electricity	6
No employment	4
Loss of crops	4
Disruption to water supplies	3
Education interrupted	2
Fear and anxiety	2
Nothing, nothing special	8
Other	15
TOTAL (n = 5977)	100

In the immediate wake of the hurricane people were preoccupied with the concrete needs of shelter and food. In the months that followed other factors became more important. Looking back at the whole period since the disaster (Table 12), lack of money seemed to be the chief concern Jobs were lost and income expected from crops was severely reduced, at e time when extra cash was needed for rebuilding and the replacement c' damaged possessions. At the same time, shortages of many goods and materials caused prices to rise. Food aid was free but people complained that they were not accustomed to eating come of the items supplied.

Damage to the home was virtually as important as lack of funds when the medium-term effects of hurricane David were considered. This reflected the slow pace of rebuilding and frustration when seeing the difficulty of getting houses "back to normal".

Bad health is the fourth most important cause for concern. More people cited health problems as their major worry in the months following the disaster than they had done in the immediate post disaster period.

The low figures for those who said they were relatively unaffected by the disaster, either at the time or in the medium term, illustrate the island-wide nature of the hurricane damage.

Question:

"Do you think any good has cone from the disaster ? If yes, which one ?""

The aim of this question was to balance the previous question which had dealt only with the negative aspects of the disaster.

Four-fifths thought that no good had come of the disaster. One fifth considered that there had been some positive aspects.

It was not easy to classify the replies. However, roughly three-quarters of the good consequences mentioned concerned aid received food, clothing, medical care etc. In particular, it was thought that some of those who had been very poor before the disaster had improved their lot. The second most important group of replies said that the disaster had brought people closer together, that family ties had been strengthened and that people had co-operated to a new degree. A few replies emphasized the increased attention given to Dominica by the international community. And others dealt with the religious and spiritual value of the disaster.

Question :

"Was there any help you would have particularly liked but did not receive ?"

Sixty per cent of all respondents expressed a need for building materials or tools (Fig. 3). This Illustrates the widespread failure to repair houses satisfactorily in the nine months following the disaster. The second largest group of respondents would have liked to have received money, thus emphasizing the financial hardship felt in the wake of the hurricane.

Figure 3: Help One Would Have Liked but Did Not Receive

Apart from the top priorities as building materials, tools or financial aid, the many other possible types of expected but not received help were only mentioned by very small proportions of the surveyed population. For example, only 0.4 % mentioned medicines and no other health needs were expressed. It will be appreciated that failure to mention a need may mean either that damage was slight, that it could readily be put right with self-help or that adequate outside assistance was obtained.