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Country Note: Cook Islands
Resource ID
35c3db1a-c370-11e5-8c77-040146164b01
Title
Country Note: Cook Islands
Date
Feb. 27, 2015, 2:30 p.m., Publication
Abstract
"The Cook Islands is composed of 15 islands, spread across nearly 2 million km2 of territorial waters. The geographic spread of the Cook Islands poses logistical problems for any necessary post-disaster relief and response efforts. The 2011 census estimated the resident population of the Cook Islands at approximately 14,974 people, with a further 2,820 temporary residents. Approximately three-quarters of the population lived in Rarotonga. The geographic spread of the population makes initial disaster response to the outer islands expensive and further burdens already-constrained public finances. The Cook Islands is expected to incur, on average, about NZ$6 million (US$4.9 million) per year in losses due to tropical cyclones. In the next 50 years, the Cook Islands has a 50 percent chance of experiencing a per-event loss exceeding NZ$97 million (US$79.5 million), and a 10 percent chance of experiencing a per-event loss exceeding NZ$327 million (US$268 million) from tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones are the predominant peril impacting the Cook Islands; Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) catastrophe models indicate negligible losses from earthquake and tsunami. The Cook Islands has a proactive approach to disaster risk financing and insurance (DRFI), which is supported by the upper echelons of government. In January 2011, the prime minister in his role as chair of the National Disaster Risk Management Council requested that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management look at ways to become self-reliant in initial disaster response and generate new income streams for investment in a fund specifically for disaster management response and recovery."
Edition
--
Responsible
andy
Point of Contact
Fraser
sfraser@worldbank.org
Purpose
--
Maintenance Frequency
None
Type
not filled
Restrictions
None
License
Public Domain
Language
eng
Temporal Extent
Start
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End
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Supplemental Information
strong_wind, tsunami
Data Quality
--
Extent
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Spatial Reference System Identifier
EPSG:4326
Keywords
(9878, 85, 440, 48, 85, 'WBG', 'wbg'), (9876, 144, 440, 48, 144, 'Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Report', 'disaster-risk-financing-and-insurance-report'), (9877, 156, 440, 48, 156, 'Cook Islands', 'cook-islands')
Category
Geoscientific Information
Regions
Cook Islands