Responses of populations for coping with an extreme event: Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy in the wake of hurricane Irma

Overview & Synopsis

The intense hurricane season of 2017 in the North Atlantic brought a number of major hurricanes including Hurricane Irma (cat. 5), which landed on the French islands of St. Martin and St. Barthélemy. These two French Overseas Collectivities, separated by a distance of some 20 kilometres, have very different territorial and social characteristics. The study reported in this article is part of a scientific feedback conducted a few weeks after Irma. The social approach to the disaster conducted within this research framework aims to characterise the behaviour and implications of the inhabitants in the experience of the event, placed in a social and territorial context thanks to narrative interviews administered in situ. The comparative approach reveals similar behaviour before and during the hurricane, but individual and collective social and territorial factors guided very distinct post-event reactions.