First Payments of $12.8m Made by CCRIF for Hurricane Dorian Damage

CCRIF announced today that it has made two payouts to the Government of The Bahamas totalling US$12.8 million (US$12,824,153) following the passage of Hurricane Dorian that caused widespread devastation in the northern part of the country affecting 2 of the 16 main islands that make up this archipelago of islands and cays.

The Bahamas has 3 tropical cyclone policies and 3 excess rainfall policies with CCRIF – each covering a section or zone of the archipelago – North West, South East and Central. The Government received US$11,527,151 from the triggering of its tropical cyclone policy and US$1,297,002 from its excess rainfall policy for the North West zone – which includes Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama. Dorian made landfall on 1 September and battered the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, in the north of the archipelago, for two days.

CCRIF’s payouts are made within 14 days of an event, but in this case CCRIF made an advance payment of 50 per cent of the preliminary estimated payout for tropical cyclone within 7 days to allow the Government to begin to address its most pressing needs – with the remaining 50 per cent paid within the 14-day window for all CCRIF payouts. In response to the payout, Deputy Prime Minster of The Bahamas Peter Turnquest said in the press, “the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility is worth it. The hurricane insurance is going to give us roughly $10.9 million [the initial payout estimate] which is more or less in line with what we expected”.

Since its inception in 2007, CCRIF has made 40 payouts totalling about US$152 million to 13 of its 21 member governments. A CCRIF team, led by its CEO, Mr. Isaac Anthony will visit The Bahamas within the next two weeks to work with the Government in their recovery efforts, including supporting the country to increase its long-term resilience to hydrometeorological hazards such as storms and hurricanes, the frequency and impacts of which are being exacerbated by climate change.

Mr. Anthony and his team also will engage in further discussions with the Government to determine how the Facility may provide some additional support from its technical assistance (TA) Programme.