Is Your Home Safe From A Disaster?

Turn on the news and you will probably see footage of a natural disaster somewhere in the world as flooding, hurricanes, wild fires and earthquakes top the list. Everyone in the country is painfully aware that one day California will be hit by “a big one,” even more so if you actually live in California. Recent major earthquakes in Japan, China, Indonesia , Haiti and Chile have underscored this fact even further. Many Californians have emergancy kits and know how to respond to a quake but very few have insurance coverage on their homes. In fact, only about 12% of California home owners have insurance and the number for the rest of the country is even less.

A recent quake in Virginia showed that most Americans are not nearly as safe as they may expect. Another example is in the 1800′s a quake outside Memphis hit so hard that the Mississippi River actually flowed backwards. That same fault line is still active today. An earthquake off the coast of Mexico two years ago was felt as far away as Arizona. You might think that a minor quake doesn’t warrant insurance, but if it causes just a few cracks in the foundation it can costs you thousands. Maybe Arizona doesn’t have a major fault, but what if Mexico gets hit by a big quake that causes damages in Arizona? Are people there covered by insurance? For a great interest rate on a new home check mortgage lenders.

 One homeowner in the Virginia quake found out the hard way. Rick Waugh of Louisa, VA., suffered cracks in his homes foundation in the Virginia quake.  The damages cost up to $40,000 and he had no insurance to cover it.  To make matters worse, the East coast and South are filled with older houses that aren’t built to modern standards. They are much more likely to suffer damages then modern homes.

“We didn’t even know there was an earthquake policy available for Virginia,” he said. Most people don’t, as they believe the larger part of the United States is immune to earthquakes but that is simply not the case. In fact, 90% of the country lies in potential quake areas. If you want to know about your mortgage try mortgage calculators to see how much you can save.

One of the main challenges to convincing people they need coverage on their homes is the common belief that if a major disaster hits, insurers won’t be able to cover it all. Similar problems were seen after Katrina but as Rick Waugh found out, it doesn’t even take a big one to make that policy worth its while. Even if an insurance company couldn’t cover that much in damages, whatever they could cover is still less you will have to pay out of your own pocket. If are thinking of refinancing, now is a great time at refinance rates to do so.

So you probably had no idea you lived in a quake zone and needed insurance but now you do. It may seem excessive at the time but so it losing your home.