On October 29, 2014, Mr. Isaac Anthony, Chief Executive Officer of CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), will be officially presenting a cheque for US$493,465 to the Government of Anguilla, representing the payout under the country’s excess rainfall insurance policy, due as a result of heavy rains that affected the country during Hurricane Gonzalo. Gonzalo passed directly over Anguilla as a Category 1 hurricane on 13 October 2014.
This is the first payout by CCRIF under an Excess Rainfall Policy and the facility wishes to recognise this milestone.
Anguilla is one of eight CCRIF member countries that purchased excess rainfall coverage in June at the commencement of the 2014/15 policy year. The country also has a CCRIF tropical cyclone (TC) – i.e. hurricane – policy, which is based on modelled losses due to wind and storm surge, as part of its disaster risk management strategy. These modelled losses from TC Gonzalo were below Anguilla’s policy attachment point (deductible) and therefore their TC policy was not triggered. The excess rainfall policy complements the TC policy allowing Anguilla to be covered for two perils that often occur at the same time during tropical cyclones.
Developed by CCRIF, Swiss Re and Kinetic Analysis Corporation (KAC), 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 hurricane or outside of one. Like CCRIF’s tropical cyclone and earthquake insurance, the excess rainfall product is parametric, which means that a payout can be made quickly (within 14 days) after a rain event that triggers a country’s policy, without waiting for time-consuming damage and loss assessments on the ground. This product was launched by CCRIF in 2013.
This payout is the second payment the Government of Anguilla will receive from CCRIF. In 2010, CCRIF made a payout of US$4,282,733 to Anguilla under its TC policy following the passage of Hurricane Earl, which passed close to the island that August.
– Press Release
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
