BARBADOS COULD receive as much as BDS$17 million from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) as a result of the damage done by Hurricane Tomas over the weekend. In all nearly BDS$26 million in preliminary payments will be made to the three Caribbean islands affected.
According to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) the CCRIF preliminary calculations show payouts for Barbados, BDS$6.4 million for St. Lucia and US$2.2 million for St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Caymans-based CCRIF is owned and operated by 16 Caribbean governments, and is the world’s first and, to date, only regional fund to provide earthquake and hurricane coverage in the form of a set payment when disaster strikes
They said that “Barbados endured the biggest actual loss as well as the biggest loss relative to Gross Domestic Product -just over 1.5% …due largely to the fact that near-hurricane force winds affected the entire island and due also to high coastal exposure. Both St. Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines endured modelled losses of around half of one per cent of GDP.”
CCRIF said that “preliminary reports from all three islands suggest that the impacts are commensurate with these levels of losses.
“All areas of Barbados have been significantly impacted, whereas severe impacts have been limited to the southern parts of St. Lucia and the northern parts of St Vincent.”
CCRIF said that the payouts reflect the application of policy conditions to the modelled government loss. It said that each member of CCRIF selects their own policy attachment point and the level of premium they wish to pay. These three conditions then dictate what the payout will be relative to the loss.
“Under the terms of CCRIF policies, a final loss and payout calculation will be undertaken on 13 November, with the National Hurricane Centre data available at that time used as input to the loss model. Payouts will be made as soon thereafter as possible.”
CCRIF said that Hurricane Tomas remains an active storm and could impact further CCRIF-covered countries. Should that occur, a second event report will be issued, it added. (SP/CMC)
