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1. Metals in the coastal systems of Abaco Island, The Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117924  

   Salas-Ortiz, Yanila; Nielsen, Hunter; Hurst, Morgan R; Orzech, Audrey; Kelinske, Mark; Serju, Makeda; Schlachter, Katharine; Bockus, Abigail; Claridge, Diane; Dunn, Charlotte; et al (June 2025, Marine Pollution Bulletin)

   Hurricanes can introduce metals into coastal systems. Unfortunately, metal concentrations are unknown in many hurricane prone locations. Here we measured vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, molybdenum, cadmium, antimony, barium, lead, and uranium in surface water, sediments, and seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) collected in seagrass beds and marinas around The Abacos, The Bahamas in November 2019, May 2020, and June and December 2021 to establish a post-Hurricane Dorian baseline, assess changes post-storm, and understand bioconcentration in seagrass. Metal concentrations were higher in marinas and several increased over time. Also, metal profiles in sediments became more similar over time. Together, these suggest that metals were impacted by Hurricane Dorian and are either returning to pre-storm conditions or increasing due to recovery-related activities. Thalassia testudinum uptakes most metals more readily from surface water than sediments. Therefore, seagrasses may phytoremediate metals, but also transfer metals to higher trophic levels. 

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2. Oceanic passage of hurricanes across Cay Sal Bank in The Bahamas over the last 530 years

   https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2021.106653  

   Tyler S Winkler, Peter J (January 2022, Marine geology)

   Islands across the Bahamian Archipelago have been devastated by five major hurricanes from 2010 to 2020 CE, including Category 5 Hurricane Dorian in 2019 that inundated parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama with up to 4 m of surge, killing 84 people and leaving >245 others missing. Up to 1 m relative sea-level rise is estimated for The Bahamas by 2100 CE, which could enhance flooding from weaker storms ( 

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3. StEER: A Community-Centered Approach to Assessing the Performance of the Built Environment After Natural Hazard Events

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2021.636197  

   Kijewski-Correa, T.L. (May 2021, Frontiers in built environment)

   Since its founding in 2018, the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has worked to deepen the capacity of the Natural Hazards Engineering (NHE) community for coordinated and standardized assessments of the performance of the built environment following natural hazard events. This paper positions StEER within the field of engineering reconnaissance and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), outlining its organizational model for coordinated community-led responses to wind, seismic, and coastal hazard events. The paper’s examination of StEER’s event response workflow, engaging a range of hardware and delivering a suite of products, demonstrates StEER’s contributions in the areas of: workflow and data standardization, data reliability to enable field-observation-driven research & development, efficiency in data collection and dissemination to speed knowledge sharing, near-real- time open data access for enhanced coordination and transparency, and flexibility in collaboration modes to reduce the “overhead” associated with reconnaissance and foster broad NHE community engagement in event responses as part of field and virtual assessment structural teams (FAST/VAST). StEER’s creation of efficient systems to deliver well-documented, reliable data suitable for diverse re-uses as well as rapidly disseminated synopses of the impact of natural hazard events on the built environment provide a distinctive complement to existing post-event reconnaissance initiatives. The implementation of these policies, protocols and workflows is then demonstrated with case studies from five events illustrating StEER’s different field response strategies: the Nashville, Tennessee Tornadoes (2020) – a Hazard Gradient Survey; the Palu Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia (2018) – a Representative Performance Study; the Puerto Rico Earthquakes (2019/2020) – using Targeted Case Studies; Hurricane Laura (2020) – leveraging Rapid Surveys to enable virtual assessments; and Hurricane Dorian (2019) in the Bahamas – a Phased Multi-Hazard Investigation. The use of these strategies has enabled StEER to respond to 36 natural hazard events, involving over 150 different individuals to produce 45 published reports/briefings, over 5000 publicly available app-based structural assessments, and over 1600 km (1000 mi) of street-level panoramic imagery in its first 2years of operation. 

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4. Revising evidence of hurricane strikes on Abaco Island (The Bahamas) over the last 700 years

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73132  

   Winkler, T.; van Hengstum, P.; Donnelly, J.; Wallace, E.; Sullivan, R.; MacDonald, D.; Albury, N. (October 2020, Scientific reports)

   null (Ed.)

   The northern Bahamas have experienced more frequent intense-hurricane impacts than almost anywhere else in the Atlantic since 1850 CE. In 2019, category 5 (Saffir-Simpson scale) Hurricane Dorian demonstrated the destructive potential of these natural hazards. Problematically, determining whether high hurricane activity levels remained constant through time is difficult given the short observational record (< 170 years). We present a 700-year long, near-annually resolved stratigraphic record of hurricane passage near Thatchpoint Blue Hole (TPBH) on Abaco Island, The Bahamas. Using longer sediment cores (888 cm) and more reliable age-control, this study revises and temporally expands a previous study from TPBH that underestimated the sedimentation rate. TPBH records at least 13 ≥ category 2 hurricanes per century between 1500 to 1670 CE, which exceeds the 9 ≥ category 2 hurricanes per century within 50 km of TPBH since 1850 CE. The eastern United States also experienced frequent hurricanes from 1500 to 1670 CE, but frequency was depressed elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. This suggests that spatial heterogeneity in Atlantic hurricane activity since 1850 CE could have persisted throughout the last millennium. This heterogeneity is impacted by climatic and stochastic forcing, but additional high-resolution paleo-hurricane reconstructions are required to assess the mechanisms that impact regional variability. 

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5. Exploring sex differences in information needs, media dependencies, and attention allocation during Hurricane Dorian

   https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.0652  

   Lachlan, PhD; Spence, PhD; Hutter, MA; Gilbert, MA (September 2021, Journal of Emergency Management)

   In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas and the southeast United States, resulting in widespread damage and loss of life. Drawing from previous crisis communication research on both natural and man-made disasters, this study examines information seeking and medium preferences, attention allocation, and sex differences in these outcomes. Extant literature has found differences between men and women in terms of the volume and types of information wanted during a crisis event, as well as preferences for different media in times of crisis. This literature has yet to examine the degree to which attention allocation may be related to these outcomes. To address these issues in a naturalistic context, a large-scale survey was targeted at residents of states impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Results are consistent with previous research indicating that females engaged in more overall information seeking and sought more information seeking related to tangible goals. Females found interactive media (Internet and social media) to be more useful than males. Evidence was not detected concerning sex differences in the way people found out about the storm and sex differences in attention allocation detected. Results suggested small effects for perceived usefulness of television and Internet on attention allocation for both men and women. Implications for emergency management personnel and public officials are discussed. 

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