Earthquakes & Tremors – what you don’t know can hurt you

Wednesday’s magnitude -5.0 earthquake was memorable for affecting such a large piece of geography  – tremors were felt in Ontario, Quebec, New York, Illinois, Vermont, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio – without resulting in fatalities or substantial damage.

The quake occurred at approx. 1:31 p.m., lasted 15 to 20 seconds, and was dominating social media networks on Twitter and Facebook within minutes.

But it could have been worse – much worse.

Most buildings in North America have no earthquake insurance coverage – and most building owners don’t know (or remember) that reality.

Consider:

• some insurers are able to provide the coverage as an extension to some standard policies; others cannot.
• as the geographic threat of seismic activity increases, the premium increases.
• the coverage usually carries much higher deductibles; for example, many large commercial or institutional buildings (or as part of a property schedule) carry deductibles of at least $100,000.

But for residential properties, our insurers provide coverage, and often at premiums of less than $300.

The protection is available and affordable – but largely unused.

Tags: claims, coverage, damage, earthquake, environment, insurance, risk, uninsured