4 By Angela Burnett O n September 6, 2017, I felt a range of emotions, chief among them were fear, disbelief and anger. That day, I forcibly found myself in a select group directly hit by the most powerful hurricane in the history of the 166-year-old Atlantic hurricane season record – category 5 Hurricane Irma, packing 185 mph sustained winds. At age of 31 at the time, I had experienced everything from a category 1 to 4 hurricane more than once, including notorious hurricanes like Hugo. The Hurricane Irma experience, however, was unprecedented. Despite my personal background and close to 10 years of experience as a climate change professional, Irma was unlike anything I could have imagined or predicted. There was a palatable fear for life and for the future of the country, disbelief at the supernatural power of the storm and anger that the world had yet to wake up to the reality that climate change is fuelling stronger hurricanes and threatening lives. Angela Burnett The cover of The Irma Diaries I emerged from that experience determined to expose the world to the plight of small islands on the frontlines of climate change in very real, human terms. A month after the hurricane, I started to collect incredible survivor stories and in December 2017, The Irma Diaries was published. The Irma Diaries is not just a book but a platform to bridge personal connections to climate change to inspire global action. In addition to educating the global community, The Irma Diaries seeks to offer other islanders a vivid understanding of the sheer power and impact of Hurricane Irma as it unfortunately represents a glimpse into our collective future. Between 2017 and 2019, a total of nine (9) Caribbean countries were directly hit and devastated by three record-breaking category 5 hurricanes. How can we be more prepared? How can be build more resiliently? What are the key vulnerabilities that we should avoid? The Hurricane Irma survivors hold some of the answers! In this edition of Horizon, it is my honour to share with you one of the 25 short survivor stories included in The Irma Diaries – Gunpoint. It has always been one of the survivor stories that touched me the most. It highlights the important lesson that hurricane resilience runs much deeper than hurricane shutters, which themselves must be properly installed to stand a chance. It also demonstrates the reality that it just takes one breach to make the difference between a house that remains standing and one that crumbles in the • Continues on next page
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