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

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 d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Territorium
Main Authors: Stéphanie Defossez, Monique Gherardi
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
French
Portuguese
Published: Coimbra University Press 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.14195/1647-7723_28-2_4
https://doaj.org/article/96c495f305d54b658a5460941c6ac3ab
Description
Summary: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.