For the 2019/20 policy year, all CCRIF members renewed their existing parametric insurance coverage; and 10 members increased their level of coverage for at least one of their policies compared to the 2018/19 policy year. Members purchased a total of 59 policies: 21 tropical cyclone (TC) policies, 15 earthquake (EQ) policies, 21 excess rainfall (XSR) policies and 2 COAST (fisheries) policies – an increase of four policies compared with the previous year.
Tropical Cyclone Iota was the thirty-first and most powerful tropical cyclone of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season, overtaking in intensity the recent Hurricane Eta. Iota developed from a powerful tropical wave moving across the eastern Caribbean Sea, which evolved into a tropical depression on 13 November. Six hours later, it strengthened into a tropical storm while it was over the central Caribbean Sea, north of Colombia. In the following days Tropical Storm Iota intensified, becoming a major hurricane on 16 November.
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, December 9, 2020. CCRIF has made payouts totalling US$30.6 million to the Government of Nicaragua following the passage of Tropical Cyclones Iota and Eta, which made landfall as Category 4 hurricanes along the Nicaraguan coast within two weeks of each other in November. Both hurricanes resulted in landslides and flooding, displacing thousands, with Nicaragua’s National Disaster Prevention System (SINAPRED) reporting that at least 16 persons died and many are still missing.