Browsing: Caribbean property insurance crisis 2017

The Caribbean closes the books on 2017 — the most catastrophic year in the region’s modern property and investment history. Two Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, reshaped the regional landscape in September while the unaffected islands delivered their strongest winter season in years. We assess what 2017 meant and what 2018 holds.

Two months after Hurricane Irma and six weeks after Hurricane Maria, the Caribbean is deep in the acute recovery phase. Puerto Rico remains 80 percent without power, Dominica faces a years-long rebuilding challenge, and the property insurance crisis is reshaping the regional market. Unaffected islands are quietly absorbing displaced tourism demand.

Hurricanes Irma (Sep 6) and Maria (Sep 18-20) struck the Caribbean in the most catastrophic back-to-back disaster sequence in modern regional history. Barbuda is 95% destroyed and evacuated. Dominica is shattered. The BVI, USVI and Puerto Rico face enormous recovery challenges. Edition 106 of the Caribbean Property & Investment Review.

The Caribbean suffered its most catastrophic hurricane season on record during September 2017. Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria — both Category 5 monsters — struck within two weeks, destroying entire communities, wiping billions from property values and triggering the worst humanitarian crisis the region has seen in living memory.