SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – A powerful earthquake that rocked the eastern Caribbean last month has for the first time triggered use of an insurance pool that provides emergency cash to regional islands after a significant natural disaster.

The magnitude-7.4 quake, which was centred beneath the channel that separates the small islands of Dominica and Martinique when it hit on November 29, resulted in a nearly US$1-million catastrophe payout from the disaster pool, fund supervisor Simon Young said Thursday.

The strong undersea temblor, which damaged homes and water pipes but led to no serious injuries in the two island nations, surpassed policy thresholds to issue payments of US$528,000 for Dominica and US$419,00 for St Lucia.

The countries received the lump-sum payments from the disaster fund shortly before the US Geological Survey issued its final report on the powerful Caribbean quake Thursday.

“It was a small enough amount that we could activate the payment before the holidays,” Young said from the Washington office of Caribbean Risk Managers Ltd, which oversees the fund.

The insurance programme, which the World Bank says is unique, lets small Caribbean countries pool their risk to natural disasters, slashing individual premiums by 40 per cent. Nations pay annual premiums from US$200,000 to US$2 million and in return are eligible for disaster payouts of US$10 million to US$50 million.

The French overseas department of Martinique, which sustained the brunt of the November quake, is not a member of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility. Claims there will be covered by the French state-owned reinsurance company Caisse Centrale de Reassurance.