Hawaii's coral reefs took heavy damage from this year's hurricanes, but a first-of-its-kind insurance policy is now paying out to fix them — good news for reef groups and the coastal communities that depend on them.

• Hurricanes Lala and Lowell broke apart reefs around the islands, including coral chunks the size of a car.
• The storms triggered the first payouts ever under a reef insurance policy held by the Nature Conservancy, worth $500,000 in total.
• The money goes to groups in the Hawaii Emergency Reef Restoration Network, which assess damage and rescue broken coral.
• More than 1,000 corals have already been rescued around the Big Island by trained, permitted divers.
• Volunteers help from the surface, mixing cement that divers use to glue coral back onto the reef.

Outlook: Restoration work will continue for months, and the payouts set a template for insuring reefs against future storms.