TT heads to CCRIF for flood relief

The Ministry of Finance has requested the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) to urgently disburse funds under this country's catastrophe insurance policy, Finance Minister said via a tweet on his official Twitter account today.

CCRIF usually deals only with hurricane relief, but 2 years ago, the MOF paid for additional coverage for damage from excessive rainfall, Imbert said. Last October the county accessed $47 million in claims for severe flooding from CCRIF. The country has been a member of CCRIF since 2007 but had previously only paid for tropical cyclone and earthquake coverage.

Early last year, CCRIF said the TT government purchased a CCRIF policy for Excess Rainfall and has two policies for such in place– one for Trinidad and another for Tobago. Imbert said more details will be provided when the ministry hears from CCRIF, hopefully tomorrow. While the country's claim for funding is being processed, the ministry will use internal resources to "urgently disburse funds to relief agencies and affected residents," Imbert said in another tweet.