Hurricane Irma has triggered payments from CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) of approximately US$29.6 million, with The Bahamas receiving $234,000.
A release from CCRIF SPC yesterday explained that the insurance scheme shelled out payouts to the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Haiti and The Bahamas "on their tropical cyclone insurance (TC) policies that they hold with CCRIF SPC".
The insurance facility explained that the calculations for Haiti and The Bahamas were not made based on the impact of Irma, but on the aggregate deductible cover (ADC), "a new policy feature for its members". Haiti received $162,000 from the scheme.
"The ADC represents a means by which CCRIF can help its members when modelled losses fall below the attachment point, but where there are observed losses on the ground," the CCRIF SPC's release said.
It is expected that these payments for the six countries will be received by the countries "within 14 days of the event as mandated by CCRIF SPC's operational guidelines".
"CCRIF SPC continues to assess if any excess rainfall (XSR) policies of its member countries were triggered by the rains from Hurricane Irma," CCRIF SPC said.
"Countries may possibly receive a second payment under their XSR policies. The assessment for XSR policies takes a few days longer than the assessment for TC policies, which are based on wind and storm surge."
According to Prime Minster Dr. Hubert Minnis, The Bahamas "paid up" its CCRIF SPC premium after the previous administration discontinued this country's relationship with the insurance scheme.
Former Prime Minister Perry Christie said his adminstration withdrew from the insurance scheme after the entity denied a claim on this country's damage following two devastating hurricanes in two years.
Christie made an impassioned statement in his address to the United Nations Small Island Developing States (UNSIDS) Symposium earlier this year, insisting that if small countries like The Bahamas are to effectively implement promised policies connected to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they would need access to certain resources when natural disasters strike. If those resources are denied, Christie suggested, other resources might have to be rerouted to disaster relief while those United Nations SDGs are put on hold.
Christie told the room that it made "no sense" for The Bahamas to "spend an enormous amount of money" on insurance, only to have certain "variations in determination" of wind speed and flooding cause the country to be denied access to funds for which it had paid huge premiums for nine years.
"We are not qualified, even though the impact on people and infrastructure is devastating, and so the country has to find a means to pay its way," Christie said.
"I never ever lose an opportunity to speak to this vexing issue that faces a country like The Bahamas, and we have argued in vain that when you apply the per capita income test to The Bahamas, you are being unfair to The Bahamas insofar as our geophysical structure is concerned, and the differing stages of development of our country.
"And this is a country that is committed to the 2030 goals of the United Nations, but we have to pause and find the means to pay our way after each hurricane impact."
However, Minnis said at a meeting of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) days before Irma struck, that his government is "a different government" and "different administration".

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