Hurricane Frequency Research Articles

Vulnerability to natural disturbance in communities of Neotropical bats: Short-term impact of Hurricane Patricia on the Mexican Pacific Coast

The frequency of high-intensity hurricanes has increased in past decades, making it necessary to understand their impacts on biological diversity. The disturbance by cyclones adds to the anthropic disturbance and generates important effects on ecosystems. Bats are ideal bioindicators that show several responses to impacts of hurricanes in insular systems. However, little is known about their usefulness in assessing impacts of hurricanes in continental regions. We aimed to analyze the short-term impact of Hurricane Patricia (category 4) and anthropic disturbance on the diversity of bats in coastal Jalisco, Mexico, and on abundance of functional groups. We sampled bats at three locations before Hurricane Patricia and eight months after. During a sampling effort of 7091 m2 of netting we captured 487 bats of 17 species, 12 of which were phyllostomids. We detected a decrease in diversity of bats and a more similar composition of species among locations after the hurricane, and a greater stability in species composition and trophic structure in the location with more conserved dry forest. Bats responded in different ways according to functional group. The most vulnerable species were nectarivores, small, with low mobility, and with preferences for understory and cavities. However, their changes in abundance were different among locations and habitats. Conversely, abundance of frugivores-omnivores and insectivores was greater after the hurricane. Additionally, greater changes in abundance among functional groups were in more disturbed sites. Our results indicate that maintaining primary forest and remnants of secondary dry forests is vital to mitigate the effects of major natural disturbances on biodiversity in continental regions.

Hurricane-induced power outage risk under climate change is primarily driven by the uncertainty in projections of future hurricane frequency

Nine in ten major outages in the US have been caused by hurricanes. Long-term outage risk is a function of climate change-triggered shifts in hurricane frequency and intensity; yet projections of both remain highly uncertain. However, outage risk models do not account for the epistemic uncertainties in physics-based hurricane projections under climate change, largely due to the extreme computational complexity. Instead they use simple probabilistic assumptions to model such uncertainties. Here, we propose a transparent and efficient framework to, for the first time, bridge the physics-based hurricane projections and intricate outage risk models. We find that uncertainty in projections of the frequency of weaker storms explains over 95% of the uncertainty in outage projections; thus, reducing this uncertainty will greatly improve outage risk management. We also show that the expected annual fraction of affected customers exhibits large variances, warranting the adoption of robust resilience investment strategies and climate-informed regulatory frameworks.

Estimated Time to Restoration of Hurricane Sandy in a Future Climate

Power outage restoration following extreme storms is a complicated process that couples engineering processes and human decisions. Emergency managers typically rely on past experiences and have limited access to computer simulations to aid in decision-making. Climate scientists predict that although hurricane frequency may decrease, the intensity of storms may increase. Increased damage from hurricanes will result in new restoration challenges that emergency managers may not have experience solving. Our study uses agent-based modeling (ABM) to determine how restoration might have been impacted for 30 different scenarios of Hurricane Sandy for a climate in 2112 (Sandy2112). These Sandy2112 scenarios were obtained from a previous study that modeled how outages from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 might have been affected in the future as climate change intensified both wind and precipitation hazards. As the number of outages increases, so does the expected estimated time to restoration for each storm. The impact of increasing crews is also studied to determine the relationship between the number of crews and outage durations (or restoration curves). Both the number of outages and the number of crews impact the variability in time to restoration. Our results can help emergency managers and policy makers plan for future hurricanes that are likely to become stronger and more impactful to critical infrastructure.

Hurricane trend detection

Because a change in the frequency (number/year) of hurricanes could be a result of climate change, we analyzed the historical record of Atlantic basin and US landfalling hurricanes, as well as US continental accumulated cyclone energy to evaluate issues related to trend detection. Hurricane and major hurricane landfall counts exhibited no significant overall trend over 167 years of available data, nor did accumulated cyclone energy over the continental USA over 119 years of available data, although shorter-term trends were evident in all three datasets. Given the χ2 distribution evinced by hurricane and major hurricane counts, we generated synthetic series to test the effect of segment length, demonstrating that shorter series were increasingly likely to exhibit spurious trends. Compared to synthetic data with the same mean, the historical all-storm data were more likely to exhibit short-term trends, providing some evidence for long-term persistence at timescales below 10 years. Because this might be due to known climate modes, we examined the relationship between the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) and hurricane frequency in light of these short-term excursions. We found that while ratios of hurricane counts with AMO phase matched expectations, statistical tests were less clear due to noise. Over a period of 167 years, we found that an upward trend of roughly 0.7/century is sufficient to be detectable with 80% confidence over the range from 1 to 21 storms/year. Storm energy data 1900–2018 over land were also analyzed. The trend was again zero. The pattern of spurious trends for short segments was again found. Results for AMO periods were similar to count data. Atlantic basin all storms and major storms (1950–2018) did not exhibit any trend over the whole period or after 1990. Major storms 1950–1989 exhibited a significant downward trend. All-storm basin scale storms exhibited short-term trends matching those expected from a Poisson process. A new test for Poisson series was developed based on the 95% distribution of slopes for simulated data across a range of series lengths. Because short data series are inherently likely to yield spurious trends, care is needed when interpreting hurricane trend data.

The East Asian Subtropical Jet Stream and Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

AbstractAtlantic tropical cyclones (TCs) can cause significant societal and economic impacts, as 2019's Dorian serves to remind us of these storms' destructiveness. Decades of effort to understand and predict Atlantic TC activity have improved seasonal forecast skill, but large uncertainties still remain, in part due to an incomplete understanding of the drivers of TC variability. Here we identify an association between the East Asian Subtropical Jet Stream (EASJ) during July–October and the frequency of Atlantic TCs (wind speed ≥34 knot) and hurricanes (wind speed ≥64 knot) during August–November based on observations for 1980–2018. This strong association is tied to the impacts of EASJ on a stationary Rossby wave train emanating from East Asia and the tropical Pacific to the North Atlantic, leading to changes in vertical wind shear in the Atlantic Main Development Region (80–20°W, 10–20°N).

Lay Detection of Unusual Patterns in the Frequency of Hurricanes

AbstractAn increase in the severity of extreme weather is arguably one of the most important consequences of climate change with immediate and potentially devastating impacts. Recent events, like Hurricane Harvey, stimulated public discourse surrounding the role of climate change in amplifying, or otherwise modifying, the patterns of such events. Within the scientific community, recent years have witnessed considerable progress on “climate attribution”—the use of statistical techniques to assess the probability that climate change is influencing the character of some extreme weather events. Using a novel application of signal detection theory, this article assesses when, and to what extent, laypeople attribute changes in hurricanes to climate change and whether and how certain characteristics predict this decision. The results show that people attribute hurricanes to climate change based on their preexisting climate beliefs and numeracy. Respondents who were more dubious about the existence of climate change (and more numerate) required a greater degree of evidence (i.e., a more extreme world) before they were willing to suggest that an unusual hurricane season might be influenced by climate change. However, those who have doubts were still willing to make these attributions when hurricane behavior becomes sufficiently extreme. In general, members of the public who hold different prior views about climate change are not in complete disagreement about the evidence they perceive, which leaves the possibility for future work to explore ways to bring such judgments back into alignment.

Understanding tropical forest abiotic response to hurricanes using experimental manipulations, field observations, and satellite data

Abstract. With projected increasing intensity of hurricanes and large uncertainty in the path of forest recovery from hurricanes, studies are needed to understand the fundamental response of forests to canopy opening and debris deposition: the response of the abiotic factors underneath the canopy. Through two manipulative experiments and instrumenting prior to Hurricane Maria (2017) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) of Puerto Rico, this study found a long recovery time of primary abiotic factors (beneath canopy light, throughfall, and temperature) influenced by the disturbance of canopy opening, as well as complex responses by the secondary abiotic factors (relative humidity, soil moisture, and leaf saturation) influenced by the disturbance of the primary factors. Recovery took 4–5 years for beneath canopy light, while throughfall recovery took 4–9 years and neither had recovered when Hurricane Maria passed 3 years after the second experiment. Air and soil temperature seemingly recovered quickly from each disturbance (<2.5 years in two experiments for ∼+1 ∘C of change); however, temperature was the most important modulator of secondary factors, which followed the long-term patterns of the throughfall. While the soil remained wetter and relative humidity in the air stayed lower until recovery, leaves in the litter and canopy were wetter and drier, with evidence that leaves dry out faster in low rainfall and saturate faster in high rainfall after disturbance. Comparison of satellite and field data before and after the 2017 hurricanes showed the utility of satellites in expanding the data coverage, but the muted response of the satellite data suggests they measure dense forest as well as thin forest that is not as disturbed by hurricanes. Thus, quick recovery times recorded by satellites should not be assumed representative of all the forest. Data records spanning the multiple manipulative experiments followed by Hurricane Maria in the LEF provide evidence that intermediate hurricane frequency has the most extreme abiotic response (with evidence on almost all abiotic factors tested) versus infrequent or frequent hurricanes.

Landform type mediates compositional change in a hurricane-disturbed sub-tropical forest

BackgroundCategorization of topographical features into landform type is a long-standing method for understanding physiographic patterns in the environment. Differences in forest composition between landform types are driven primarily by concurrent differences in soil composition and moisture, but also disturbance regime. Many studies have focused on the interaction between fire disturbance, succession, and landforms, but the effects of hurricane disturbance on compositional differences between landforms are poorly understood. In the study presented here, we assess compositional and structural differences between landform types in the tree community of a young sub-tropical forest that is frequently subjected to hurricanes. Specifically, we ask whether the tree community (1) changed structurally over the study period, (2) experienced compositional change over the study period, (3) is compositionally different between landform types, and (4) exhibits compositional change mediated by landform type.ResultsThe tree community experienced significant structural change over the course of our study, but compositional change was only significant for some landforms.ConclusionDespite large-scale, intense, and frequent hurricane disturbance to our study system, compositional change in the tree community was localized and only significant for some landform types.

Hurricane Frequency and Intensity May Decrease Dispersal of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Hatchlings in the Gulf of Mexico

Environmental variability can be an important factor in the population dynamics of many species. In marine systems, for instance, whether environmental conditions facilitate or impede the movements of juvenile animals to nursery habitat can have a large influence on subsequent population abundance. Both subtle differences in the position of oceanographic features (such as meandering currents) and major disturbances (such as hurricanes) can greatly alter dispersal outcomes. Here, we use an ocean circulation model to explore seasonal and annual variation in the dispersal of post-hatchling Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii). We simulated the transport of 24 cohorts of young Kemp’s ridley dispersing from three main nesting areas in the western Gulf of Mexico to describe variability in transport during the main hatching season and across years. We examined whether differences in transport distance among Kemp’s ridley cohorts could be explained by hurricane events. We found that years with high numbers of hurricanes corresponded to shorter dispersal distances within the first six months. Our findings suggest that differences in dispersal among sites and the impact due to hurricanes could influence the survivorship and somatic growth rates of turtles from different nesting sites and hatching cohorts. Considering such factors in future population assessments may aid in predicting how the potential for increasing tropical storms, a phenomenon linked to climate change, could affect Kemp’s ridley and other populations of sea turtles in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Wind and Storm Surge Effects on Coastal Bridges under a Changing Climate

Hurricanes and their cascading hazards have been responsible for widespread damage to life and property, and are the largest contributor to insured annual losses in coastal areas of the U.S.A. Such losses are expected to increase because of changing climate and growing coastal population density. An effective methodology to assess hurricane wind and surge hazard risks to coastal bridges under changing climate conditions is proposed. The influence of climate change scenarios on hurricane intensity and frequency is explored. A framework that couples the hurricane tracking model (consisting of genesis, track, and intensity) with a height-resolving analytical wind model and a newly developed machine learning-based surge model is used for risk assessment. The proposed methodology is applied to a coastal bridge to obtain its traffic closure rate resulting from the observed (historical) and future (projected) hurricane winds and storm surges, demonstrating the effects of changing climate on the civil infrastructure in a hurricane-prone region.

Study on the Relationship between Global Hurricane and Global Warming

In order to measure the intensity of global hurricanes, this paper selects the frequency ofhurricanes, the average grade and the mean wind speed as the indexes of intensity. Firstly, the annual hurricanes frequencies in the Atlantic Ocean, the Western Pacific, the East Pacific, the North Indian Ocean and the South Indian Ocean and the global average hurricanes scale and average wind speed, train the existing data through wavelet neural network and predict the occurrence frequency of hurricanes in the next 20 years. According to the scatter plot drawn from the known data, it is found that the global hurricane frequency, the average grade and theaverage speed of wind, which showing periodic changes, but generally increase. As a result,the intensity of global hurricanes has generally been enhanced in the current phase of observations.

Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies

Climate change is real and its impacts are mostly negative, but common portrayals of devastation are unfounded. Scenarios set out under the UN Climate Panel (IPCC) show human welfare will likely increase to 450% of today's welfare over the 21st century. Climate damages will reduce this welfare increase to 434%.Arguments for devastation typically claim that extreme weather (like droughts, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes) is already worsening because of climate change. This is mostly misleading and inconsistent with the IPCC literature. For instance, the IPCC finds no trend for global hurricane frequency and has low confidence in attribution of changes to human activity, while the US has not seen an increase in landfalling hurricanes since 1900. Global death risk from extreme weather has declined 99% over 100 years and global costs have declined 26% over the last 28 years.Arguments for devastation typically ignore adaptation, which will reduce vulnerability dramatically. While climate research suggests that fewer but stronger future hurricanes will increase damages, this effect will be countered by richer and more resilient societies. Global cost of hurricanes will likely decline from 0.04% of GDP today to 0.02% in 2100.Climate-economic research shows that the total cost from untreated climate change is negative but moderate, likely equivalent to a 3.6% reduction in total GDP.Climate policies also have costs that often vastly outweigh their climate benefits. The Paris Agreement, if fully implemented, will cost $819–$1,890 billion per year in 2030, yet will reduce emissions by just 1% of what is needed to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Each dollar spent on Paris will likely produce climate benefits worth 11¢.Long-term impacts of climate policy can cost even more. The IPCC's two best future scenarios are the “sustainable” SSP1 and the “fossil-fuel driven” SSP5. Current climate-focused attitudes suggest we aim for the “sustainable” world, but the higher economic growth in SSP5 actually leads to much greater welfare for humanity. After adjusting for climate damages, SSP5 will on average leave grandchildren of today's poor $48,000 better off every year. It will reduce poverty by 26 million each year until 2050, inequality will be lower, and more than 80 million premature deaths will be avoided.Using carbon taxes, an optimal realistic climate policy can aggressively reduce emissions and reduce the global temperature increase from 4.1°C in 2100 to 3.75°C. This will cost $18 trillion, but deliver climate benefits worth twice that. The popular 2°C target, in contrast, is unrealistic and would leave the world more than $250 trillion worse off.The most effective climate policy is increasing investment in green R&D to make future decarbonization much cheaper. This can deliver $11 of climate benefits for each dollar spent.More effective climate policies can help the world do better. The current climate discourse leads to wasteful climate policies, diverting attention and funds from more effective ways to improve the world.

Concentration and isotopic composition of mercury in a blackwater river affected by extreme flooding events

AbstractTorrential rain and extreme flooding caused by Atlantic hurricanes mobilize a large pool of organic matter (OM) from coastal forested watersheds in the southeastern United States. However, the mobilization of toxic metals such as mercury (Hg) that are associated with this vast pool of OM are rarely measured. This study aims to assess the variations of total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) levels and the isotopic compositions of Hg in a blackwater river (Waccamaw River, SC, U.S.A.) during two recent extreme flooding events induced by Hurricane Joaquin (October 2015) and Hurricane Matthew (October 2016). We show that extreme flooding considerably increased filtered THg and MeHg concentrations associated with aromatic dissolved organic matter. During a 2‐month sampling window each year (October–November), we estimate that about 27% (2015) and 78% (2016) of the average amount of Hg deposited atmospherically during these 2 months was exported via the river. The isotopic composition of Hg in the river waters was changed only slightly by the substantial inputs of runoff from surrounding landscapes, in which mass‐dependent fractionation (as δ202Hg) decreased from −1.47 to −1.67‰ and mass‐independent fractionation (as ∆199Hg) decreased from −0.15 to −0.37‰. The slight variations in Hg isotopic composition during such extreme flooding events imply that sources of Hg in the river are nearly unchanged even under the very high wet deposition of Hg derived from the intensive rainfall. The majority of Hg exported by the river (74–85%) is estimated to have been derived from dry deposition to the watersheds. An increase in frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes is expected in the next few decades due to further warming of ocean surface waters. We predict that increased hurricanes will mobilize more dry‐deposited Hg and in situ produced MeHg from these coastal watersheds where MeHg can be extensively bioaccumulated and biomagnified in the downstream aquatic food webs.

An Experimental Test of the Effects of Hurricane News about Human Behavior on Climate-Related Attitudes

ABSTRACT The year 2017 was an historic season for hurricanes devastating the United States. Related news coverage brought people close to the impacts of these natural disasters through evocative stories of people acting as heroes and villains, showing humanity at its best and worst. The current study experimentally tested the potential for these news stories of human responses to hurricanes to shape emotional and moral responses of viewers. The study also examined how hurricane news could subsequently influence other perceptions, including the implicit link between climate change and hurricane intensity and frequency. Results showed that news stories featuring the best and worst of humanity were both effective at evoking compassion, yet only stories featuring the worst of humanity evoked anger. Both emotions’ relationships with moral conviction, policy attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward climate change were mediated by reflection, and further analyses revealed significant differences among conservative, moderate, and liberal audiences.

Hurricanes, Climate Change, and the Social Construction of Risk

The advent of climate change is now increasing awareness of the potential of the intensifying peril and frequency of hurricanes for island and coastal dwellers. Considering current demographic data on migration, residence and development, the climatological findings regarding hurricane frequency, intensity, precipitation, and size become particularly menacing. However, despite the intensification and frequency of hurricanes, recognition of the social construction of risk and disasters requires that greater attention be paid to the social and economic drivers of the conditions of exposure and vulnerability that characterize coastal and island communities. The intersection of increasingly intense and frequent hurricanes associated with climate change is discussed in the context of patterns of social, demographic and economic change in the state of Florida in the United States which is located on many of the major paths of hurricanes generated in the Atlantic basin. The paper concludes with an assessment of the role that anthropologists must play in research, practice and policy making reducing the risk of disasters related to hurricane impact.

Multiyear Hybrid Prediction of Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity and the Predictability Sources

AbstractA hybrid statistical–dynamical model is developed to predict multiyear variability of Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) activity. A Poisson model takes sea surface temperature (SST) averaged over the Atlantic main development region (MDR) and the Atlantic subpolar gyre region (SPG) from the initialized CESM prediction as predictors, and skillfully predicts the basinwide TC frequency, accumulated cyclone energy (ACE), landfalling TC frequency, and hurricane and major hurricane days. Further analysis shows that the SPG SST is a more important source of predictability than the MDR SST for multiyear Atlantic TC activity. The comparison between the uninitialized and initialized CESM predictions suggests that the SPG SST is better predicted by the initialized CESM owing to the better prediction of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which contributes to the overall more skillful TC predictions. On the other hand, the skillful prediction of the basinwide TC frequency by the uninitialized CESM suggests the role of external forcing in the variability of Atlantic TC activity. The dependence of the hybrid prediction skills on the dynamic model ensemble size is also explored, and an ensemble size of ~20 is suggested as optimal. Further analysis shows that the SPG SST is associated with the variability of vertical wind shear and precipitable water over the tropical Atlantic even when the influence of the MDR SST is controlled. The spatial patterns of vertical wind shear and precipitable water suggest a strong modulation of ACE and hurricane frequency but a relatively weak influence on the basinwide TC frequency. The physical mechanisms between the SPG SST and Atlantic TC activity are discussed.

Hurricane resulted in releasing more nitrogenous than carbonaceous disinfection byproduct precursors in coastal watersheds

The frequency of Atlantic hurricanes has been predicted to increase significantly by the end of this century. Watershed disturbance initiated by hurricanes can alter dissolved organic matter (DOM) quantity and quality in source water dramatically. DOM is an important disinfection by-product (DBP) precursor, and thus hurricanes can have a significant impact on water treatability and drinking water safety. The interactions between land use and land cover (LULC) of a watershed and DBP formation potential (FP) in source water under hurricane events have rarely been evaluated. Here, we quantified the FPs of two carbonaceous (trihalomethanes [THMs] and haloacetic acids [HAA]) and two nitrogenous (haloacetonitrile [HAN] and N-nitrosodimethylamine [NDMA]) DBPs at eighteen sub-watersheds with varying LULC along the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin across North and South Carolina during and after the flooding condition caused by the 2016 Hurricane Matthew. Using chlorine as a disinfectant, THM FP was 238% (±117%) higher (p < .001) under the flooding condition than baseflow condition, while HAA FP did not change significantly as a result of the flooding. DOM composition under the flooding condition changed in favor of the formation of THMs rather than HAAs by a decrease of fulvic acid-like compounds and an increase in DOM aromaticity (SUVA). The FPs of studied DBPs under the flooding condition compared with the baseflow, followed the order of HAN (356.5%) > NDMA (246.4%) > THM (115.2%) using chloramine as a disinfectant. Higher HAN FP and NDMA FP compared to THM FP suggested that more nitrogenous than carbonaceous DBPs precursors were released during this hurricane event. LULC analysis revealed that forested wetlands were the major contributor of THM, HAA, and HAN precursors, whereas NDMA precursor was derived from developed areas. This unique study highlights the dynamic interplay between LULC and exports of carbonaceous and nitrogenous DBPs precursors during and after hurricanes.

Localized Impacts of Hurricane Irma on Diadema antillarum and Coral Reef Community Structure

Strong physical disturbance from hurricanes can disrupt coral reef ecosystems and precipitate a regime shift toward algal dominance, particularly in the absence of grazing pressure to regulate algal growth post-storm. Here, we examine the influence of Hurricane Irma on a keystone grazer, Diadema antillarum, and the surrounding coral reef benthic community in the Florida Keys. D. antillarum densities and test diameters, as well as percent cover of coral reef benthic groups, were measured at 10 sites in the middle and upper Keys before and after Irma. Significant decreases in mean D. antillarum density and median test diameter were observed following the storm. There was a correlation between the magnitude of decline in D. antillarum density and the magnitude of sediment deposition on reefs, suggesting that abrasion or burial from sediment transport may have contributed to D. antillarum mortality. We detected significant decreases in the percent cover of sponges and hydrocorals following the storm, but no change in scleractinian coral cover, which was very low (3% mean cover) at the onset of the study. Macroalgal cover increased at sites in the upper Keys and decreased at sites in the middle Keys. There was no relationship between post-storm D. antillarum density and the change in percent cover of macroalgae or turf-algal-sediment matrix (TAS), likely due to low overall abundance of the grazer. We predict that coral reefs will remain in an algal-dominated ecosystem state due to, among other factors, increasing frequency of strong hurricanes that impact the D. antillarum population.

Response of Coffee Farms to Hurricane Maria: Resistance and Resilience from an Extreme Climatic Event

Resistance and resilience have become important concepts in the evaluation of disturbance events, providing a framework that is useful in light of the expected increase in frequency and occurrences of hurricanes as a consequence of climate change. Hurricane Maria landed on Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm in September of 2017. Among the affected elements were agricultural systems, including coffee agroecosystems. Historically, coffee has been a major backbone of the island’s agricultural sector. Grown with a range of management styles, the coffee agroecosystem provides an excellent model system to study the resistance/resilience of agroecosystems faced with hurricane disturbance. Sampling 28 farms and comparing pre-hurricane data (2013) with post hurricane data we find that management style had only a small effect on either resistance or resilience, likely due to the especially strong nature of the storm. Rather, the socio-political context of individual farms seems to be a more useful predictor of resilience.

Post-hurricane relief facilitates invasion and establishment of two invasive alien vertebrate species in the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a main driver of current global change and contribute significantly to decreases in biodiversity worldwide. To prevent new introductions and establishment of IAS, it is important to identify mechanisms of incursion. On 18 September 2017, Hurricane Maria, a category-5 Atlantic storm, made landfall on the Commonwealth of Dominica causing widespread destruction. Responding to the post-hurricane situation, countries and organizations provided a large range of aid including funds, medical and security support, and relief supplies. Here we report the incursion and establishment of two vertebrate IAS on Dominica during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria—the Common Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) and Cuban Treefrog (Osteopilus septentrionalis)—representing a 20% increase in vertebrate alien species on Dominica. We also report observations of Venezuela Snouted Treefrogs (Scinax x-signatus). Collectively, these species were found at four sites spread along the Caribbean and south coast of Dominica, within or near ports of entry. Invasions of I. iguana and O. septentrionalis are especially worrisome given their known impacts on native species on other Caribbean islands. Though understandable given the human impact caused by severe weather events, these incursions suggest that biosecurity is not implemented by aid-facilitating countries and organizations. With the predicted increase in hurricane intensity and frequency, we suggest basic biosecurity and training programs to reduce incursion threats of IAS during future relief and recovery initiatives. For Dominica, we recommend mitigation programs with additional biological surveys to control and better understand the number of incursion and their impact on post-Maria Dominica.