Wednesday’s meeting of the National Disaster Risk Management Council left us with the impression that the country’s leaders have fully embraced the Scouting motto: “Be Prepared”.

Mr Desmond McKenzie, the local government minister, assured the nation that “the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is fully equipped, financially and otherwise, as we go into what is anticipated to be an active hurricane season”.

He also said that some 900 shelters across the island have already been inspected and are ready for use, if necessary, and the Ministry of Labour has enough relief supplies.

The meeting also heard from Finance Minister Fayval Williams, who reiterated that the country has natural disaster risk financing coverage of $130.6 billion. However, she was quick to point out that the amount available for draw down will depend on the severity of any disaster that may befall us.

Mrs Williams also gave the Government’s commitment to continue strengthening the National Natural Disaster Risk Financing Policy and “fill in any gaps we have”.

Were he alive today, Mr Robert Baden-Powell, who in 1907 coined the Scouting motto we quoted above, would probably give us a nod of approval as the maxim encourages readiness, in both mind and body, to face any challenge or emergency.

The Earth’s geology is such that we are always at risk, thus our insistence that preparation is essential to recovery in the event that we experience an extreme weather event or, God forbid, some other natural disaster, at any time.

The devastating effects of natural disasters on mankind are never far from our collective consciousness because the human, economic, social and environmental impacts have created massive challenges to governments and general populations in both developed and developing nations.

For example, it is worth recalling that the 1988 Hurricane Gilbert caused 433 deaths and an estimated US$8 million in damage to Jamaica — more than 40 per cent of that was to our agricultural industry.

Nineteen years later, we were hit by Hurricane Dean which inflicted an estimated $329 million in damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and other sectors.

Also in this region, our sister Caribbean nation Haiti is still struggling to recover from the 2010 earthquake that devastated the capital Port-au-Prince, killing at least 220,000 people and leaving damage estimated at US$7.8 billion.

Further afield, we recall the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 that caused US$210 billion in overall losses and close to 16,000 deaths; Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which left the United States with US$125 billion in losses and more than 1,300 fatalities; the Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008 which caused US$85 billion in damage and killed more than 80,000 people.

We could go on, and on.

The point is that the high economic costs that natural disasters inflict on economies, combined with the growing risk of exposure due to the impact of climate change, make it extremely important that governments strengthen financial resilience to disasters. In fact, in many jurisdictions, including here in Jamaica, it has become a policy priority.

The coverage that the current Administration has secured is impressive. Our hope, though, is that we will have no cause to make a claim.