Earthquake Insurance Coverage
Published by Al Adomite on April 22nd, 2008
By Al
I’ll admit I made a call to my local insurance company the morning after the first quake to ask a few questions about my homeowners policy, but why am I feeling a little cynical when I say that I’m sure someone is just chomping at the bit to go after State Farm or American Family about this:
Eastern Missouri residents are scrambling to get earthquake insurance after last week’s 5.2 magnitude trembler rattled windows and shook houses. But they are finding out there’s a waiting period for coverage, even as aftershocks shake the ground.
The state’s biggest earthquake insurance providers have imposed a 30-day moratorium on the policies after last week’s quake. Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Insurance, the largest provider, and American Family Insurance, the second largest, both say the moratorium is standard policy.
“You wouldn’t want to be in a situation where there was an event, and people rushed out to buy earthquake coverage for the possibility of an aftershock,” said American Family Insurance spokesman Steve Witmer. “It’s an industry principle that people spread the risk on assumptions of risk, and not wait until the event happens and then buy the insurance.”
It reminds me of another story from my wife’s hometown in the Ozarks of Eastern Missouri. Growing up, her parents literally had a “helicopter medical airlift policy” that if they were involved in a serious accident or catastrophe, they could be airlifted out to a regional hospital. Time is often the essence of survival and it was a long way to a top-tier hospital. What if no one wanted to “buy in” the service until a tornado came through town? There would be no money to operate the service.
Back to the quake coverage, I am shocked at this statistic, especially with us being so close to the New Madrid fault:
About 38 percent of all homes in Missouri are covered for earthquakes. In communities around St. Louis, between 58 percent and 81 percent of homes are covered.
Is anyone willing to share a good reason why you WOULDN’T be covered for quakes? (Also, just an FYI, standard homeowners policies have a 10 percent deductible for earthquakes.)
Filed under Breaking News, County Issues
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
There is a certain segment of the population that accepts personal responsibility and a certain segment that doesn’t. You are in the former.