Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On: CIRSA Members and Earthquakes

Having grown up in earthquake country, I'm grateful to live in a place where earthquake activity is isolated and infrequent. But I'm sure the residents in our member municipalities Trinidad and Cokedale feel they are more than frequent enough! Many people were no doubt shaken awake by the magnitude 5.3 earthquake that hit the region close to midnight on August 23, 2011.

The U.S. Geological Survey keeps a running log of earthquakes worldwide over the last 8-30 days, and it's interesting to read. The Trinidad area has been experiencing lots of smaller tremors in addition to the big one on August 23; the region is described by the USGS as having experienced "numerous small and moderate shocks in the last decade."

The Colorado Dept. of Local Affairs Division of Emergency Management says that there are about 100 potentially active faults in Colorado! Our biggest earthquake to date occurred in 1882, when there was a magnitude 6.5 quake in northern Colorado.

After the Trinidad quake, we got a few calls from members asking about their coverage for earthquake-related damage. The good news: earthquake coverage is included in CIRSA members' property coverage. The less-good news: the coverage is limited to $10 million per member per occurrence and in the aggregate annually. There is also an aggregate of $50 million and in the aggregate annually for the membership as a whole.

Is this enough coverage? If a big one hits, most likely not. By way of comparison, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in San Francisco in 1989 resulted in $7 billion in property damage. With today's building costs, those figures would likely be a lot higher.

So earthquakes are one of those hazards we have to keep our fingers crossed against. If we threw enough member dollars at a property insurer, we could probably get higher limits of coverage. But does it make sense to spend big bucks for earthquake coverage in a state considered "a region of minor earthquake activity"?  We'd be interested in your thoughts.

Some good earthquake safety tips can be found here. As one who had lots of childhood experience with earthquakes, my own advice, if you find yourself in an earthquake, would be to "scream loudly for Mommy." That always worked for me.