September 23, 2022
Now that Hurricane Fiona is moving slowly out of the Caribbean after having touched the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos Islands, the conversation after we have counted the injured and dead, is what will happen now with reconstruction and rebuilding from the devastation.
No better way to rebuild than with insurance. Reinsurance inflows to these countries should surge. But what struck this magazine is that the Dominican Republic is not a part of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), neither is Puerto Rico but they are an American protectorate and have access to support and markets for support despite being in the Caribbean.
After all of these years of the English speaking Caribbean building stronger ties with the Dominican Republic, they are even a participating board member of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, but yet something as important as the world’s first shared insurance portfolio in a Hurricane alley, they are not a part of. Something with this needs to be fixed.
It has nothing to do with Spanish being their primary language, because Nicaragua and Panama are members of the CCRIF. It just seems to be that the DR does not want anything to do with it. But now Hurricane Fiona has left them a little banged up, and have to start from scratch with no hand up. Could have had the support from CCRIF. They aren’t much, but little is better than nothing. Especially now that climate change phenomenon is now a real thing- We should be expecting stronger hurricanes.
Even more serious for the Dominican Republic, they share an island that is earthquake prone. It seems like the sensible thing, join up and become a member. It won’t hurt, at the very least of it.