Can Jamaica afford Hurricane Beryl’s damages?

Can Jamaica afford to pay for the damages caused by Hurricane Beryl?

So Beryl’s bill is already in the billions, and we haven’t even finished counting yet.

So far we’re looking at $10 billion to fix roads… $2 billion to fix damaged hospitals… at least $1 billion so far for the agricultural sector, which was pretty much wiped out so I’m sure that will be much higher… and $800 million to fix schools. 

Were you keeping count? That’s almost $14 billion JMD or about US$89 million so far. And these are just preliminary numbers because road access and telecoms are still limited in some areas.  We haven’t even added in the hundreds of homes that were destroyed across. 

So the next question is… who is going to pay for it?

Well, if you’re thinking, didn’t the Government have a Catastrophe Bond for situations like this? They sure did. It was supposed to cover us in case of a Category 5 or very intense Category 4 storm, like Beryl. Buuuttt Jamaica didn’t qualify for the US$150 million payout.  Apparently even though Beryl gave us pressure, it didn’t have enough air pressure to qualify.

Anyhoo… so where’s the money coming from now?  Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke says the government has several layers of disaster funding.

First, there’s the Contingency Fund and Natural Disaster Fund, which total J$4.5 billion. 

Next, we’ve got J$2.5 billion from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF). 

Also, the United States has pledged J$400 million in assistance.  And the NCB Foundation partnered with the Government on the Building a Better Jamaica Fund.  That’s J$300 million.

So, so far, that’s about J$8 billion of the J$14 billion we need. 

It’s also possible the country may get another payment from CCRIF, under a different policy. Let’s say that’s another $2.5 billion. 

The Government could also make a claim with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).  That would free up $46 billion.  And then we also have J$140 billion credit with the IMF for exactly situations like this. 

But Dr Clarke said those are worst case scenario situations and Jamaica isn’t there yet.  But like I said, the Hurricane season is just getting started.  Hopefully any other storms will stay far.

And that’s the bottom line.