The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has made payouts totalling $30.6 million to the government of Nicaragua following the passage of tropical cyclones Iota and Eta.
Both storms made landfall as category 4 hurricanes along the Nicaraguan coast within two weeks of each other in November.
Hurricane Iota was the last hurricane in the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which was the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record in terms of the number of tropical cyclones – recording 30 named storms, 13 hurricanes, and six major hurricanes.
CCRIF has now made 48 payouts to 14 of its member governments totalling approximately $194 million – all within 14 days of the event.
Based on assessments undertaken by CCRIF, more than 65% of members’ payouts have been used by governments to address the needs of their most vulnerable citizens for food, water, medication and shelter following a natural disaster.
“We would like to play our part in creating an environment for greater levels of South-South cooperation between the Caribbean and Central America as they confront similar natural hazards and have similar vulnerabilities,” said CCRIF Chief Executive Officer Isaac Anthony.
“We are committed through our upcoming strategic planning sessions in 2021 to create strategies and activities beyond those focused on financial protection that would help to bring these two regions together to share best practices, lessons learned and experiences in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation that would help to advance the sustainability agendas of both regions”.
