Socio‐ecological lessons from the multiple landfalls of Hurricane Georges

AbstractOver the course of 16 d in the fall of 1998, Hurricane Georges made landfall on five Caribbean Island nations, two U.S. states, and two territories. Along its path, it impacted nearly every type of built environment and terrestrial and marine ecosystem found in the Caribbean and the southeastern United States. We reviewed ecological and sociological research related to Georges in order to demonstrate the potential power of regional synoptic networks despite notable gaps that existed at the time. Most studies examined various effects and responses within four years of the storm, though a few reported longer‐term results. Reduction in forest stem density was the most reported ecological effect and ranged from 7% to 51% among sites in different forest types. Forests previously impacted by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 showed lower mortality from Georges than forests with longer hurricane‐free intervals. Rivers in the storm's path exported heavy loads of sediment to marine systems. For example, 5–10 million tons of sediment was transported to marine systems from Puerto Rico, and suspended sediments increased tenfold in coastal Louisiana. Economic costs directly related to Hurricane Georges ranged from 5% to 200% of annual GDP in the year after the storm. Sociological research indicated that children and college students exposed to Hurricane Georges experienced elevated effects on mental health such as anxiety and depression for up to 2.5 yr. Established research areas and longitudinal studies were valuable in understanding hurricane effects in the context of long‐term trends but fragmented research capacity reduced both local and regional synthetic efforts. Georges provides a template of how future integrated research programs could provide a deeper understanding of how nature, urbanization, human culture, and societal norms interact, respond, and recover from a major hurricane. However, future studies should avoid using the Saffir‐Simpson scale as a shorthand indicator or predictor of storm effects because topographic, historical, ecological, political, infrastructural, and societal factors interact to alter storm effects. The breadth of topics addressed in the research produced after Georges shows the potential for transformative, regionally synthetic research that spans whole watersheds and nearshore areas while integrating ecological and social sciences.