Hurricane Maria, a category five storm, pummeled the Commonwealth of Dominica (Dominica), a small island in the eastern Caribbean. The hurricane was the thirteenth named storm of the 2017 Tropical Atlantic Hurricane Season. 1 It made landfall on the southwest coast of Dominica at 9: 35pm on September 18th, with wind speed over 160 mph and high gusts. 2 The category five hurricane’s impact was catastrophic. Its force resulted in intense storm surges, torrential downpours, overflowing raging rivers, and extremely high winds across the island, which left 27 people dead, over 65,000 of the 72,000 inhabitants were displaced, and 37 were missing. 3, 4 Over 90 percent of roofs were damaged or destroyed, and virtually no building was left untouched. 5 Water and power supplies were disrupted, and entire crops destroyed. 6 Based on European Union estimates, the damage and losses from Hurricane Maria stand at over 200 percent of Dominica’s annual GDP, equivalent to approximately US $1.3 B. 7

With this landscape-scale destruction, the island is given an almost clean slate on which to rebuild. Its Prime Minister, realizing the opportunity, vowed to rebuild in such a way that the island would become the world’s first disaster resilient island. Against this background, this chapter assesses the feasibility of such a desire, given Dominica’s broader societal contexts, including trends pre-and immediately post-disaster. The chapter begins by examining key concepts of “resilience” and “recovery,” and at their intersection “building back better”(BBB) considerations, noting key areas of alignment. It then examines the pre and post-disaster context, looking at important vulnerabilities existing within or impacting Dominica. The chapter ends by matching the propositions of BBB with early accomplishments on the island.