Insurance in Haiti won’t cover scope of property losses: Insurance company adjusters began to assess damage in Haiti, but claims to recover earthquake losses are expected to be low. [The Miami Herald]

Jan. 25--PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Natural disasters the size and scope of the Haiti earthquake typically mean astronomical payouts by the insurance industry. But although damage from the Jan. 12 quake is expected to reach into the billions, insured losses won't be significant -- because so few buildings in Haiti have any insurance at all.

Since 2007, Haiti has participated in the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, an insurance pool, to help cover losses from hurricanes or an earthquake. Earthquake coverage from the fund: a mere $8 million. Payouts from private insurers aren't expected to be large, either.

By comparison, insurance companies paid out more than $15.3 billion to cover losses after an earthquake struck Northridge, Calif., in 1994.

A small group of adjusters in Haiti has been busy since the earthquake -- not only with paperwork, but also navigating streets lined with the jagged remains of buildings.

Since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake shredded Port-au-Prince, its suburbs and cities to the south, adjuster Nirka Rochelin has been seeing as many as 20 clients a day.

At the Five Star Market, as store employees carried boxes of salvaged inventory past the single remaining wall, Rochelin surveyed the rubble, jotting down notes on the damage.

When market owner Hassan Chreiky approached Rochelin to tell her his accountant was still tallying the damage, she urged him to file a claim.

Haitian officials have estimated the cost of rebuilding at $3 billion, and that could triple as they assess damage to schools, medical facilities, courthouses, a downtown penitentiary and the general infrastructure.

Guillermo Franco, senior research engineer at thecatastrophic risk assessment firm AIR Worldwide, said the damage in Port-au-Prince is exacerbated because the city is built on steep hills that increase the chance of landslides after an earthquake.

Haiti has no national building code. Risk modeling firm Eqecat of Oakland, Calif., said it expects to find that insured buildings have fared slightly better, because insurers likely insist that structures be reinforced as a requirement for getting coverage.

Eqecat pointed out that poor construction contributed to the heavy losses, with most of the concrete or masonry buildings featuring "little or none of the lateral reinforcing needed for earthquake resistance."

There are 20 registered insurance companies in Haiti, but only eight are active.

Not only must insurance adjusters navigate rubble-strewn streets, they also must deal with tenuous security.

Two days after the quake, the head of one prominent insurance company visited downtown Port-au-Prince to survey property damage accompanied by two security guards. "They were well-armed," said Olivier Barrau, president and general director of Alternative Insurance Co., which specializes in auto, homeowners, commercial, life and health insurance. Ninety percent of its clients are in Port-au-Prince.

Barrau said he expects insurance rates and premiums to increase, though he's not sure by how much.

Saturday morning, Rochelin and a colleague drove around the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. They stopped at a computer store in Delmas and found walls cracked and laptops on the floor, and at a shopping plaza and bread company, both in Petionville.

When they arrived in downtown Port-au-Prince, they found significantly heavier damage.

"There's a sad realism here because there's an inverse relationship between insured property loss and loss of human lives," said Luis Frias, a vice president who does property underwriting at Chartis Insurance's Miami office, which covers the Caribbean and Latin America. Chartis has no policies in Haiti.

"Usually if the insurance property loss is low, there's a possibility the death toll will be high," Frias added. "That inverse relationship is indicative of how developed an area is."

Daniel reported from Haiti. Garcia reported from Miami.

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