By: Deandre Williamson
Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism Fellow
Unable to sleep at nights because of the uncomfortable living conditions at a shelter in Nassau, Howard Carey soon made the decision to seek refuge in Canada after Hurricane Dorian left his family homeless.
Carey, along with his pregnant wife Sonovia and five children were evacuated to Nassau following the devastation of Hurricane Dorian in Grand Bahama which caused severe flooding and destroyed their newly renovated home.
For three weeks, the Carey family stayed at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium shelter before moving in with a cousin.
“Luckily, we were able to stay at my cousin and that wasn’t even comfortable because I have a lot of kids,” Howard said.
Hurricane Dorian displaced thousands of Bahamian families, like the Careys, and decimated approximately 3,000 homes in Abaco and Grand Bahama.
Many, like Howard and his wife, were also left unemployed and forced to search for a better life to support their families.
“It was something I wasn’t used to, especially me being a man, not being able to provide for my kids and my wife,” Howard said.
The intensity of the deadly and powerful Hurricane Dorian was an effect of climate change which has led to climate migration as people opt to move to other cities and countries around the world to restore their lives after such natural disasters.
For Howard and Sonovia, after evacuating to Nassau, they spent their time replacing their children’s passports and other important documents that were lost during the storm, before embarking on their life changing journey to Montreal, Canada in September, 2019.
They then applied for Canadian visas and with financial help from his mother, Howard purchased tickets to Canada for his family.
Challenges in Canada
But the challenges of climate migration had only just begun for the Carey family, as Howard and Sonovia were eager to provide a better way of life for their children.
“When we came to Canada, we basically didn’t know nobody,” Sonovia said.
“We still going through challenges,” Howard added.
“It still ain’t easy. It’s just basically a fresh air because I could start over. Nobody know me. This is a big environment. There are a lot of opportunities. Especially the type of work that I do has a high command for carpentry. I could make more money because the minimum wage is higher. I could give my kids a better way of living, a better way of thinking.”
According to Howard, although his family loves Canada, every day is still a struggle because they have to learn how to speak French while adjusting to life in a new environment.
“I don’t know how to speak French and my kids have to go to a French school. It’s hard on them, but at the end of the day it’s going to better them,” he said.
Also getting around the big city of Montreal using public transportation is challenging, Howard said, because he’s continuously learning the bus routes and the train system.
His wife explained that moving to Canada was a struggle in the beginning, but they met some nice Canadians who welcomed them with opened arms.
“As simple as the taxi driver who picked us up from the airport and carried us where we needed to go. He was very understanding because he was also from another country and he knows what it’s like going into a new country and getting around and getting to know people. He was very lenient in helping us out with certain things,” Sonovia said.
Some may question why the family didn’t stay in Nassau, but according to Sonovia, Nassau was overpopulated as a result of the influx of thousands of evacuees following the hurricane.
“Simple as the National Insurance building, when I went there, you was towing line upon line just to get a National Insurance card. So it isn’t to say that we didn’t want to stay, it’s just that it was overpopulated and we started hearing a lot of little stuff happening and so we say, ‘You know what, we have to leave. We have to move,’” Sonovia said.
“This was our choice, Montreal. It is nice and we have settled down now.”
The Carey family has grown since migrating to Montreal as Sonovia recently gave birth to a handsome baby boy.
Howard and Sonovia are now in the process of seeking permanent residency for their family in the immigrant-friendly country.
Sonovia will begin a job working with underprivileged kids and Howard works as a carpenter.
However, they haven’t forgotten their beloved home in Freeport, Grand Bahama and hopes to invest there in the future.
But, the family won’t move back to Grand Bahama to rebuild because of fears that future hurricanes would intensify and could be worse than Dorian.
“The weather is going to get worse every year and that’s facts,” Howard said. “We barely escaped Dorian. So, why should I sit around and rebuild and wait for another one to come through and mash down everything? It doesn’t make sense.
“Every year, it’s almost a guaranteed that you work all your life for something and you strive for something, say your home, like our own, we even ain’t had it for a year yet, and it got destroyed. You know how hard, blood, sweat and tears we had to work for that.”
Howard added that there’s nothing wrong with change and believes moving away from home will make him a better person.
“At the end of the day, Freeport will still always be my home, but right now it has nothing to offer me and it has nothing to offer a lot of other Bahamians,” he said.
“That’s why a lot of people are moving to basically start over. It doesn’t make sense stay there. It isn’t like it’s getting better day-by-day, month-by-month. It’s still bad. People still hurting, people don’t work.”
Howard and Sonovia Carey (left), along with their six children are now living in Montreal, Canada following Hurricane Dorian.
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