PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—A multinational catastrophe insurance pool will pay $8 million to the government of Haiti after a massive earthquake struck the island Tuesday, causing widespread damage and reportedly killing tens of thousands of people.

The magnitude 7.0 quake close to the nation's capital of Port-au-Prince was sufficient to trigger Haiti's full policy limits from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, a pool in which 16 governments participate, according to a CCRIF statement. Haiti's government paid $385,500 for the coverage.

However, the extent of insured losses had yet to be determined, catastrophe modelers said.

Haiti's insurance market remains largely undeveloped and no official insurance statistics are available, Boston-based AIR Worldwide Inc. said. As such, AIR said it does not expect insured losses in both Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic to be significant.

London-based AXCO Insurance Information Services estimated that total nonlife insurance premiums in Haiti are less than $20 million a year and that earthquake insurance penetration is extremely low.

Oakland, Calif.-based EQECAT Inc. estimated total economic damages from the quake in the “hundreds of millions” of dollars, but said estimates of insured losses were not yet available.

The strongest earthquake to strike Haiti in more than two centuries toppled hundreds of buildings in Port-au-Prince, including the presidential palace, offices of the World Bank and United Nations, hotels, a hospital and parts of a university, according to catastrophe modeling firm Risk Management Solutions Inc.

Some 200 guests were reported missing at Hotel Montana, a luxury hotel that was among structures around Haiti's capital that were destroyed.

Also falling, according to news reports, was Port-au-Prince's three-star Hotel Christopher, which served as headquarters of the U.N. stabilization mission to Haiti. Approximately 200 U.N. staff members were in the hotel when it collapsed, and at least 150 remained unaccounted for as of Wednesday. Another hotel housing U.N. workers, the upscale Karibe Hotel, also reportedly was rubble.

Buildings in the region tend to be constructed of heavy materials with little or none of the lateral reinforcing needed for earthquake resistance, according to Newark, Calif.-based RMS.

In a television interview, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive put Haiti's death toll at “well over 100,000.”

More than 2 million people live in the area affected by the earthquake. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living below the poverty line, according to U.S. government reports.