Antigua and Barbuda was making great strides as one of the Caribbean's more prosperous nations and poised to become “high income,” officially no longer in need of development assistance. Then Hurricane Irma struck.
Category 5 winds reaching 180mph lashed Barbuda, damaging some 90% of structures and triggering the evacuation of all 1,800 residents to cramped shelters on its larger sister island. A “mammoth task” of reconstruction was required.
Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria inflicted similar devastation on nearby Dominica, wiping out the equivalent of 226% of its gross domestic product in a country classed as “upper-middle-income” and therefore with limited access to aid and concessional finance.