Hurricane Season Heightens Financial Anxiety Across the Caribbean

Fri Oct 10 2025 12:09:34 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

As the Caribbean faces the annual hurricane season, residents are grappling with soaring home insurance costs, exacerbated by memories of past storms like Hurricane Irma.

The Caribbean's hurricane season presents a dual crisis: fear of natural disasters coupled with rapidly escalating insurance premiums. Following Hurricane Irma, many Barbudans and residents across the region still feel the emotional and financial impact, as insurance costs soar by as much as 40% in recent years. Experts illustrate the struggle between increasing cyclone risks and the limited population to share policy costs, leading to widespread underinsurance among homeowners. Amid this seasonal anxiety, innovative solutions like the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility are being explored to mitigate future disasters.

For some Barbudans, thunderstorms still trigger flashbacks of the night in September 2017 when they lost everything they owned to Hurricane Irma's devastating winds.

Eight years on, while memories may be close to hand, home insurance for many on Barbuda and other islands in the Caribbean's hurricane belt is more prohibitively expensive than ever.

Across the region, premiums have gone through the roof in the past two years, surging by as much as 40% on some islands, according to industry figures.

Experts blame a perfect storm of increasing risk – as the region sees worsening and more rapidly intensifying cyclones – yet tiny populations of people to pay for policies, equating to poor returns for insurance companies.

Dwight Benjamin's Barbuda home was one of the few left relatively undamaged by Irma. After the storm, he invested in a one-room extension topped with a concrete roof that will serve as a shelter for his family should disaster strike again.

Like Dwight, many Caribbean residents build homes out of pocket, forgoing mortgages that carry high interest rates. Most homes on islands affected by hurricanes remain uninsured, with reports indicating only 20% of Jamaican homes having coverage and just 50% in Barbados.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with peak activity between mid-August and mid-October. Northern Caribbean nations are among the most at risk, facing renewed urgency as recent storms rekindle traumatic memories.

With threats from storms, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, the cost of home insurance in Caribbean nations is perpetually elevated, challenging many residents who remain unprotected.

To bolster preparedness, emergency planning initiatives and risk coverage mechanisms like the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility aim to provide relief amid relentless climatic pressures.

As the peak of the season sweeps through, resilience remains a cornerstone for residents like Dwight and Mohammid Walbrook, who navigate the financial labyrinth of insurance with the lingering anxiety of nature's fury.