When catastrophic Hurricane Dorian became the strongest storm ever to hit The Bahamas six years ago, submerging the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama under floodwaters, the U.S. government was among the most generous of responders.

Washington, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, deployed search-and-rescue teams, airlifted over 50 metric tons of critical relief supplies from a warehouse in Miami and dispatched a disaster team. The $33 million response included seaplanes the humanitarian agency chartered to ferry responders and visiting lawmakers to the devastation.

That was during the first Trump administration — before USAID was dismantled.

Now, as Hurricane Melissa threatens Cuba, the southern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands after battering Jamaica with 185 mph winds and torrential rains on Tuesday, people are bracing not only for the storm’s aftermath, but also for the stark reality of recovering without the safety net that USAID once provided.

The scale of support seen after Dorian will almost certainly not be repeated this year.

“My fear after this hurricane passes is that that’s only going to be the tip of the iceberg. Food, water, shelter. If all of that is disrupted, then it’s going to take time to put it back in place. And USAID was that safety net in the past,” said Andy Ingraham, a prominent Fort Lauderdale businessman who serves as president of The Bahamas Diaspora Association and is president and founder of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers.

Miami Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who helped secure American assistance after Dorian, told the Miami Herald that with USAID’s dismantling, “there is real uncertainty about whether help will come” in the aftermath of Melissa.

“I have consistently opposed efforts by the administration to gut USAID. The administration must be ready to fill any gaps and move resources immediately to support Jamaica and other affected nations,” she said. “In Congress, I stand ready to approve the funds required to help them recover.”

Ahead of Melissa’s landfall on the southwestern coast of Jamaica on Tuesday, Caribbean emergency responders said they were awaiting to hear from the U.S. government about what will take the place of USAID.

The storm is the first major natural disaster to hit the region since the Trump administration dismantled USAID earlier this year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agency’s functions would be absorbed by the State Department.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration was given the responsibility for international disaster relief. But much of the staff in that bureau was later laid off.

The White House referred an inquiry about its plan for hurricane assistance to the State Department.

A spokesperson for the department said there won’t be a decision on aid deployment “until a need is identified.”

“The State Department maintains warehouses around the world from which we can distribute lifesaving aid in the aftermath of natural disasters,” a State Department spokesperson told The Miami Herald. “The department has pre-positioned emergency relief supplies in six warehouses that will allow for the distribution of emergency relief supplies to people affected by the storm.”

Other Democrats on Capitol Hill have expressed concern.

Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Joaquin Castro, ranking member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and Yvette D. Clarke said on Monday, the U.S. “must stand with Jamaica and the entire Caribbean before, during, and after Hurricane Melissa makes landfall.”

A congressional aide later told the Herald/McClatchy newspapers that while it makes sense for the U.S. government to evaluate the need immediately after the hurricane’s landfall, lawmakers have had no information on whether the State Department has pre-positioned any supplies or resources like boats.

“We haven’t been briefed yet by State on the disaster response setup, so we don’t really know the details of how many staff they have available, what kind of advanced planning they’re doing,” the aide said.

One source familiar with the situation said Jamaica has requested support from the United States.

“We understand that State has activated a Disaster Assistance Response team and plans to deploy staff to the Dominican Republic, Bahamas and Jamaica,” the person said. “We do not know whether supplies were pre-positioned or what resources have been made available for the response.”

The Trump administration has been much more selective in deciding what disaster it responds to. In August, for example, the administration sent no aid after an earthquake in Afghanistan.

Amid the questions about the U.S humanitarian response, the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations have been touting their readiness to respond, not just in Jamaica but in Haiti — where three people died before Melissa reached hurricane strength — and in Cuba. Melissa was expected to make landfall Tuesday night or Wednesday morning in the eastern part of the island.

Working the phones

Ingraham, who is Bahamian, said he is concerned about the region not being able to rely on USAID in the way countries have been accustomed to. However, he believes the U.S. government will “do something to help in the region as great partners.”

“The fact that they have a lot of assets in the Caribbean now, I’m sure some of those may be directed to help Jamaica, The Bahamas and some of the other islands that have been impacted,” he said, referring to warships the U.S. has deployed to the southern Caribbean to combat narco-trafficking.

Small island nations have neither the infrastructure nor the money to withstand the devastation from a major hurricane, Ingraham said.

“For us in the Caribbean, it’s not a good time. The only salvation that we have, quite frankly, is the private sector,” he added.

On Tuesday, as Melissa tore off rooftops in the Jamaican communities of Westmoreland and Black River, and drenched agriculture farmland under floodwaters, Ingraham began working the phone, asking contacts if they could spare airplanes to begin evacuations from the southern Bahamas. Among them was Fort Lauderdale based Tropic Ocean Airways, which dispatched one of its seaplanes. Other companies helped with fuel, and the Bahamian government removed bureaucratic red tape to get the help to the islands.

“I think we go back to the same old adage,” Ingraham said. “We’ve got to plan for the hurricane instead of reacting to the hurricane. We’ve been down this road. ... We understand hurricanes. They’re going to come, they’re going to drop a lot of rain, they’re going to have a lot of wind damage. We just need to plan, if we got to evacuate people, let’s plan in advance. If we need assets, let’s organize those assets so they’ll be ready at a moment’s notice.”

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(Miami Herald staff writers Antonio María Delgado and David Goodhue contributed to this report.)

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