No insurance payouts likely for storm-hit countries

The CCRIF, which is a not-for-profit risk-pooling facility, owned, operated by Caribbean governments, said that the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season had caused damage in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Last Friday, AIR Worldwide, a major catastrophe risk-modelled based in the United States, said that insurers may face US$500 million to US$1.1 billion in losses in the Caribbean from the passage of Hurricane Irene.

AIR said The Bahamas accounted for more than 60 per cent of the insured loss - between US$300 million and US$700 million.

But CCRIF said the losses were such that none of the policies were triggered.

The highest losses were in The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, but not as bad as originally feared, and "none of the other four countries was impacted by more than lower tropical storm-force winds," CCRIF said.

The regional insurer said early damage reports indicate low-to-moderate impacts.

The Bahamas was the exception; however, critical tourism infrastructure was not badly affected, CCRIF said.

"Based on reports from affected governments, we don't see a major immediate loss of revenue to any of the countries impacted by Irene, which is what the CCRIF policy is designed to cover," said Dr Simon Young, chief executive officer of Caribbean Risk Managers, the facility supervisor for CCRIF.

"However, we do recognise that significant damage has been done in some of the smaller islands in The Bahamas, and CCRIF has already contacted the government to see what other ways it may be able to assist, for example through CCRIF's technical-assistance programme."

Young said that within 24 hours of the passage of the hurricane, preliminary calculations of the modelled losses in all CCRIF countries had been completed.

"While The Bahamas endured the largest modelled loss, the absence of major impacts in Nassau and Freeport, where most of the economic exposure covered by the CCRIF policy is situated, meant that the loss was below the trigger level," he said.

Since CCRIF's inception in 2007, it has made eight payouts totalling just under US$33 million to seven member governments.