Government will on Monday receive over two million dollars (US$1,284,882) in compensation under its excess rainfall insurance policy, or CCRIF, as a result of recent heavy rains.
Representatives of the CCRIF, formerly known as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, are due to make the official presentation to Government on Monday during a ceremony, which takes place at Government Headquarters at 10 a.m.
Director of Finance and Economic Affairs Martin Cox and CCRIF Board members Desirée Cherebin and Faye Hardy will deliver remarks at the ceremony, which will also be attended by representatives of the the Barbados Meteorological Service, the Department of Emergency Management, Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency and the Caribbean Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology.
In a statement, the CCRIF noted that Barbados was the only CCRIF member country with an excess rainfall policy that was affected by the passage of a trough system from November 20 to 21.
It however said that the pay out brings to four the number of payments made by CCRIF this year on members’ excess rainfall policies, totalling approximately US$3.4 million. Anguilla received two disbursements for Tropical Cyclone Gonzalo and a trough that occurred on November 7, while St. Kitts and Nevis received a payment, also for the November 7 trough.
In the meantime, eight CCRIF member countries – Anguilla, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti,
-St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent & the Grenadines – purchased excess rainfall policies for the first time for the 2014/2015 policy year.
The excess rainfall product is aimed primarily at extreme high rainfall events of short duration (a few hours to a few days), whether they happen during a tropical cyclone (hurricane) or not. Therefore, excess rainfall policies complement countries’ tropical cyclone policies, which are based on losses from wind and storm surge. If both policies are triggered by a given hurricane, then pay outs on both policies are due, the statement said.