The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) will payout nearly $11 million to The Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian’s widespread destruction and devastation in Abaco and Grand Bahama.

According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest, that figure does not include rainfall insurance.

As CCRIF explained on its website, the payouts are made within 14 days of an event, but in this case an advance payment of 50 percent was made to allow the government to begin addressing its most pressing needs.

The remaining 50 percent is to be paid within the 14-day window. Since assuming office two years ago, the Minnis administration has paid CCRIF some $5 million. 

“We’re pleased and confident that the coverage is worth it.  Heaven forbid a storm like we’ve seen with Dorian hits Nassau,” Mr. Turnquest said.

“The damage and the cost would be astronomical and without some kind of protection like CCRIF, we would be flat out for a long time, trust me.

“One of the things people in New Providence, areas that have not been hit by the hurricane, don’t understand the magnitude of the lost. Not only in terms of the physical lost, but in terms of the economic and the mental lost. 

“These are significant events and we cannot do it on our own.  We need the protection and the risk protection in order to be able to at least address the immediate needs.” 

Donations continue to pour in from the international community. The question now is how those funds will be distributed.

“The government has organized a restructuring committee or a disaster recovery committee and they will kind of prioritize and determine how the money is spent, but obviously we know that there is going to be tremendous private sector need,” the deputy prime minister said.

“There is also going to be commercial sector need in terms of no interest loans, low guarantees and grants for small businesses to ensure that we get the commercial sector up.

“So there is going to be a whole combination of incentives and initiatives that we are going to undertake to get these communities back up and going as soon as possible.”   

When asked, the deputy prime minister said he could not say just how much money the government has received in donations, adding that a detailed report will be given to each donor accounting for every cent.