Caribbean cat facility to pay additional $8m to governments hit by Matthew

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), a regional catastrophe fund for Caribbean governments to limit the financial impact of catastrophe events including hurricanes, is prepared to make additional pay-outs totalling almost $8 million to CCRIF member countries following the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew.

Pay-outs will be made to Haiti, Barbados, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines as a result of the heavy rains from Hurricane Matthew, which triggered payments on these countries’ excess rainfall policies.

CCRIF has already said it is due that the Government of Haiti is due a pay-out of approximately $20.4 million as part of its tropical cyclone policy.

The pay-outs from excess rainfall in Haiti brought the total figure to $23.4 million.

For Barbados, the tropical cyclone and excess rainfall policies triggered result in payout of $1.72 million.

The CCRIF policy for excess rainfall in Saint Lucia has also been triggered, resulting in a total payout of just under $3.8 million.

Yves Bastien, Minister of France, after the announcement of the first pay-out informed CCRIF that “the Government of Haiti - on behalf of the people of Haiti - appreciates the promptness with which CCRIF responded by triggering a payment of a little more than $20 million. This pay out is of upmost importance in our effort to bring some relief in different parts of the nation. Your organization may be certain we will be on your side for very long.”

Irwin LaRocque, CARICOM Secretary General and Ambassador, said: “The early response to the aftermath of Matthew as well as the supportive facility put in place to help resource the required recovery and rebuilding effort also underline the critical importance of the regional institutional frameworks established by the Community, CDEMA and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which has already processed payment to two of the affected countries, Barbados and Haiti.”