Abstract

Tropical cyclones have had a considerable impact on the people, environment and economy of Mauritius. Large cyclones are relatively rare, and in popular imagination are thought to hit Mauritius every 15 years. Yet Mauritius has not been hit for a comparatively long time; over 25 years since the last cyclone widely considered as ‘significant’. Critically, the chronology of cyclones in Mauritius is contested. There is also little known about the role of memory in responses to cyclones, either from a current or historical standpoint and details regarding the responses to past cyclones in Mauritian history are relatively scant. This talk presents a methodology for constructing an improved chronology of past cyclones and a severity index of experience using documentary archive material. This historical approach is combined with social science interview data in order to present lessons learnt for disaster risk reduction.