NU Online News Service, Nov. 18, 3:54 p.m. EST

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) said it has made $12.6 million in insurance payments to the governments of Barbados, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, following Hurricane Tomas.

Tomas passed the islands on Oct. 30 and 31.

CCRIF said it released to each country 50 percent of their payouts on Nov. 7--well before the end of the customary 14-day waiting period--to facilitate requests from the three countries.

Barbados received $8.3 million; St. Lucia, $3.2 million; and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, $1.09 million.

These three countries, along with 13 other Caribbean nations, have had catastrophe insurance for hurricanes and earthquakes with CCRIF since the inception of the facility in 2007, CCRIF said.

CCRIF said it offers parametric insurance and therefore payouts can be calculated and made very quickly because there is no need to estimate damage after an event.

Payouts for tropical cyclones are determined based on government losses calculated using storm data from the National Hurricane Center and parameters fixed within the loss estimation model used to underpin CCRIF's policies.

The model calculates the level of wind and ocean hazards, such as storm surge, encountered across the affected area and uses the prefixed value and distribution of government exposures to those hazards to calculate a loss.

Hurricane Tomas resulted in significant damage to the three islands, with Saint Lucian officials reporting that Tomas was "the worst in Saint Lucian history, destroying the island's entire banana crop." Across the three islands, roads and houses were damaged, power lines downed, and the agriculture sector heavily impacted.

Special Reports /

CCRIF Pays Out Over $12M For Tomas Damage In Caribbean

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