Neighbor News
The California Quake Conundrum
With all the floods and fires going on - are people forgetting about Earthquakes?
It has been a crazy three weeks here in California with endless storms, tornados, rainfall records, and what seems to be an endless atmospheric river. Rain today, Rain yesterday, Rain tomorrow - the story does not seem to change much week to week.
With all that rain the flooding and human carnage has been just crazy. Sadly many are now just realizing the even small floods can be very expensive to property. And floods are not covered by most home insurance contracts.
This of course is all on top of the horrible wildfires the state has lived through. Year after Year of what seems to be increasingly large massive wildfires. Fires so big that they are breaking record after record. When will all of this end you might say?
Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Will the first, new problem, solve the older earlier problem? Time will tell.
With all this carnage though - have we all forgotten about the peril that we all used to think was the biggest concern in the State - Earthquake? Earthquakes may seem rarer than wildfires, although they are probably not, are massive and damaging forms of earth movement.
Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Earthquakes, similar to floods, are flat out excluded on home insurance. Unless the policy is endorsed to cover such a peril - consumers are in the same boat -[so to speak] as with floods. Countless Californians that own homes - have zero earthquake coverage... and that is very concerning.
The good news is that Earthquake Insurance has probably never been easier to procure - from the CEA, to Geovera, to Palomar, and now onto Jumpstart - the options seem to be growing year over year. Policy options now exist for renters, landlords, and many more. Earthquake insurance is becoming more mature.
These floods serve to remind many that we live in a dramatic state, during potentially unsual times. Its quite a Conundrum - while many move here for the incredible views and glorious sun, sometimes the West has dark things to share. Floods, Fires, and Earthquakes Oh my!
Scott W Johnson is the owner of QuakeCov - an independent Earthquake Brokerage based in California. QuakeCov is a division of MIS LLC 0h11625.
