The cost of hurricane insurance in the Caribbean is too expensive. It’s completely pointless to even think about it for your household- right? Wrong!
We are Yokahu and we’re here to change the landscape of hurricane protection. We feel that frankly, not enough is being done to protect the people of the Caribbean against the devastating effects of hurricanes. With evidence that hurricanes are becoming stronger with climate change, there has got to be a better answer to safeguard those who live in the path of this potential devastation.
Currently, your options are limited if you want to protect yourself from hurricanes. You can insure your home or car against damage, but this cover is limited. The average cost of this hurricane insurance is beyond many people. Depending on your island you may be asked to pay more than 1% of the value of your home in premiums and then up to a 5% deductible after a hurricane. If you faced a hurricane every 10 years and your home cost $100,000 then that’s $15,000 spent before you receive a penny back. And it will take months of adjustments and paperwork after a storm for you to receive any money.
No targeted and specific hurricane insurance companies or policies exist in the region, until now. We’re all aware that the aftermath of a hurricane leaves so much more than your home in tatters. With the likeliness of evacuation, no amenities, total reliance on aid and the heavy risk of losing your job… it’s unimaginable the strain it puts on families and their livelihoods.
With hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey not far enough in the past, we’re pleased to offer our unique answer with our parametric approach to hurricane insurance. We work off live weather data at your location to determine when a payout is triggered. Sounds complicated? Let us explain!
When you sign up to Yokahu we’ll agree how much you’ll pay upfront and how much money we’ll send you after a hurricane. During a hurricane; if you experience windspeeds of or over 74mph at your exact location, we send you money based on the strength of the storm. We rank storms into 5 colour categories based upon the Minimum Sea Level Pressure of the storm. You can read more about how and why we categorise storms in this way here. The stronger the storm, the more we send.
You can decide what to spend your money on to get your life back on track. And the great thing? Payment is sent to your mobile/cell phone in as little as 24 hours so you can plug the gap of responding to your immediate needs and your longer term life redevelopment.
We are pleased to be launching Yokahu and our hurricane protection in Jamaica, St Lucia, The Bahamas and US Virgin islands with a limited amount of covers available as we get started. The more policyholders we can service, the more rapid and effective our expansion can be; protecting island communities and generating resilience in every corner we can.
We want to be the change and challenge! What’s already out there for the people of the Caribbean, isn’t good enough. Welcome and watch this space and we hope you’ll become a part of our community.