Guyana Guardian – Still recovering from Hurricane Maria, which had caused the loss of around 4,600 lives across the region just a few months ago, several Caribbean nations are once again bracing themselves and praying for the best, as another hurricane season has started.

With Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Chris starting off the season on a lighter note in recent weeks, scientists say that it is too early to effectively predict how powerful hurricanes will be in 2018 or exactly how much there will be.

But at best, they expect the Caribbean to face at least five to nine hurricanes when the season gets into full swing between August and November this year.

Now looking out for Hurricane Debby which is next in line, the US National Hurricane Centre has listed a host of others that may follow in 2018, including Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Gordon, and Hurricane Joyce, among others.

Though it is a region that is blessed with beautiful sandy beaches, and turquoise water that tourists shells out millions of dollars to see, the Caribbean’s curse is the fact that all of the Islands are scattered within an unpredictable Hurricane belt.

So every year, one, two, or several of those very Islands are faced with the haunting reality of being battered by powerful storms and devastating hurricanes.

The trouble is not just the hurricanes, but the structural devastations, loss of lives, fear, and economic turmoil that it leaves behind.

And for even those that were hit as long as 20 years ago, full recovery from their losses has been an elusive dream.

From last year alone, parts of the Islands of St. Martin, Barbuda, and Puerto Rico among others are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria, which has since left large parts of the latter with no electricity up to this day.

For them, another Hurricane strike at even a lesser capacity than Maria can spell the end of their economies as they know it.

And while the 2018 Hurricane season may more than likely be a normal one, even atmospheric scientists are warning the public not to rely on their projection, since they are generally only able to predict the size and path of the storm and its possible path, for no more than a week or so in advance.

Even then the predictions are always not so reliant, since forecasts are better made between 48hr to 24hrs prior to a storm hitting land.