CCRIF makes $7.45m payout to Haiti for hurricane Laura

Hurricane Laura’s passage has triggered parametric insurance coverage for Haiti, with the country receiving $7.45 million from the CCRIF SPC (formerly known as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility).

Haiti received $7.2 million as the hurricane’s rains triggered its parametric excess rainfall policy that it has in place with the CCRIF.

In addition, Haiti also received $290,925 under the Aggregate Deductible Cover (ADC) of its parametric Tropical Cyclone (TC) policy, as Laura’s passage was not sufficient to trigger the main policy because the modelled loss fell below the attachment point.

The $7.45 million was paid to Haiti’s Government on September 7th 2020, within 14 days of the end of the rains associated with Laura and demonstrating the ability of parametric coverage to pay out rapidly to assist in recovery from natural disaster events.

The CCRIF noted that reports from Haiti’s Direction de la Protection Civile and other development partner, “Indicate that Laura and the rains associated with the system resulted in: 31 persons losing their life with another 8 persons missing; approximatively 44,175 persons from 8,835 families being adversely affected; flooding of 6,272 homes, of which 2,320 suffered some damage and 243 were destroyed; the flooding of Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport; many roads and bridges being damaged, destroyed or blocked; and the destruction of agricultural crops and death of livestock.”

Minister of the Economy and Finance for Haiti, Michel Patrick Boisvert, commented, “Purchasing parametric insurance offered by CCRIF is part of the Haitian Government’s approach to improving the financial management of natural disaster risks in order to reduce their effects on public finances. Thus, the payout of $7.195 million provided by CCRIF to Haiti following the heavy rainfall caused by the passage of Tropical Storm Laura in August will allow us to address current emergencies, notably the implementation of action programmes to rehabilitate affected areas and protect vulnerable social groups.”

For Haiti, this is the country’s fourth payout under a CCRIF parametric disaster insurance policy, following $7.8 million following the 2010 earthquake, $20.4 million on the country’s TC policy following Hurricane Matthew in 2016 which passed over Haiti as a powerful Category 4 hurricane and another $3.0 million on the country’s excess rainfall policy for that same event.

“I would like to take the opportunity here to thank the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for the payment of Haiti’s insurance premiums either fully or in part since 2010 in support of that country’s overall disaster risk management strategy and resilience building agenda,” Isaac Anthony, CCRIF’s CEO said.

Since its inception in 2007, CCRIF has has now paid out 44 times across 22 events (earthquakes, tropical cyclones, and excess rainfall events) to 14 member governments, for a total of around $163 million, exclusive of ADC payments.