The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility has made payouts totalling $12.8 million to the Bahamas Government after the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian.

Bermuda is a backer and member of the CCRIF, the world’s first regional fund utilising parametric insurance, giving member governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake, hurricane and excess rainfall catastrophe coverage with lowest-possible pricing.

The Bahamas has three tropical cyclone policies and three excess rainfall policies with CCRIF — each covering a section or zone of the archipelago — North West, South East and Central.

The Government received $11,527,151 from the triggering of its tropical cyclone policy and $1,297,002 from its excess rainfall policy for the North West zone — which includes Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama.

Dorian made landfall on September 1 and battered the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, in the north of the archipelago, for two days.

CCRIF’s payouts are made within 14 days of an event, but in this case CCRIF made an advance payment of 50 per cent of the preliminary estimated payout for tropical cyclone within seven days to allow the Government to begin to address its most pressing needs — with the remaining 50 per cent paid within the 14-day window for all CCRIF payouts.

In response to the payout, Peter Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minster of the Bahamas said: “The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility is worth it. The hurricane insurance is going to give us roughly $10.9 million [the initial payout estimate] which is more or less in line with what we expected.”

Since its inception in 2007, CCRIF has made 40 payouts totalling about $152 million to 13 of its 21 member governments.

Isaac Anthony, the CCRIF chief executive officer, will visit the Bahamas within the next two weeks to work with the Government in its recovery efforts, including supporting the country to increase its long-term resilience to hydrometeorological hazards such as storms and hurricanes, the frequency and impacts of which are being exacerbated by climate change.

Mr Anthony and his team also will engage in further discussions with the Government to determine how the facility may provide some additional support from its technical assistance programme, which supports specific projects after a natural disaster.

For example, the Bahamas was the recipient in 2012 of a TA grant of $85,000 after Hurricane Sandy for a new seawall at Sandyport Beach. Jamaica received a $100,000 grant for the rehabilitation of the Muirton Boys Home after Sandy, Dominica $100,000 for new fencing at the Douglas-Charles Airport which was damaged by the Tropical Storm Erika in 2016; and Belize $100,000 for the purchase of 30 automated weather stations.

CCRIF was developed under the technical leadership of the World Bank and with a grant from the Government of Japan. It was capitalised through contributions to a Multi-Donor Trust Fund by the Government of Canada, the European Union, the World Bank, the governments of the UK and France, the Caribbean Development Bank and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments.