CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) announced today that Barbados will receive a payout of US$5,813,299 (approximately BDS$11.6 million) on its Excess Rainfall policy due to heavy rainfall that occurred during the passage of Tropical Storm Kirk.
Barbados has been a member of CCRIF since its inception in 2007 and has received five previous payouts totaling US$13.5 million. This payout will bring the total value of payouts to Barbados to US$19.3 million – as shown in the table below.CCRIF payouts to Barbados
CCRIF payouts to Barbados
| Event | Policy | Payout (US$) |
| Tropical Cyclone Tomas, October 2010 | Tropical Cyclone | 8,560,247 |
| Trough System, 21 November 2014 | Excess Rainfall | 1,284,882 |
| Tropical Cyclone Matthew, September 2016 | Excess Rainfall | 975,000 |
| Tropical Cyclone | 753,277 | |
| Tropical Cyclone Maria, September 2017 | Excess Rainfall | 1,917,506 |
| Tropical Cyclone Kirk, October 2018 | Excess Rainfall | 5,813,299 |
| Total for the period June 2007 – October 2018 | 19,304,211 |
Governments and citizens in the Caribbean region in particular have witnessed first-hand the impacts of extreme geophysical and climate events throughout the past decade – highlighted by Hurricanes Matthew, Irma and Maria in the past two years – and have been encouraged by CCRIF’s rapid response and payouts. After this payout to Barbados, CCRIF will have made 37 payouts totalling US$136.3 million to 13 member governments since 2007 – all within 14 days of the end of the event. It is worthwhile noting that since the start of this policy year on June 1,
3 additional countries have joined the Facility – the Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Sint Maarten. CCRIF’s membership now stands at 20 countries – 19 Caribbean governments and 1 Central American government.
CCRIF is an example of an ex-ante financing instrument and allows immediate injections of liquidity in the aftermath of disasters ensuring continuity of government operations and enabling critical infrastructure to be quickly restored and most importantly addressing the most urgent needs of the affected population.
