Earthquake insurance

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1906 San Francisco earthquake

Earthquake insurance is a form of property

homeowners insurance
policies do not cover earthquake damage.

Most earthquake insurance policies feature a high deductible, which makes this type of insurance useful if the entire home is destroyed, but not useful if the home is merely damaged. Rates depend on location and the probability of an earthquake loss. Rates may be lower for homes made of wood, which withstand earthquakes better than homes made of brick.

In the past, earthquake loss was assessed using a collection of mass inventory data and was based mostly on experts' opinions. Today it is estimated using a Damage Ratio (DR), a ratio of the earthquake damage money amount to the

total value of a building.[1] Another method is the use of HAZUS
, a computerized procedure for loss estimation.

As with

hurricane or other large-scale disasters, insurance companies must be careful when assigning this type of insurance, because an earthquake strong enough to destroy one home will probably destroy dozens of homes in the same area. If one company has written insurance policies on numerous homes in a particular city, then a devastating earthquake will quickly drain all the company's resources. Insurance companies devote much study and effort toward risk management
to avoid such cases.

In the United States, insurance companies stop selling coverage for a few weeks after a sizeable earthquake has occurred. This is because damaging aftershocks can occur after the initial quake, and rarely, it may be foreshock. Although aftershocks are smaller in magnitude, they deviate from the original epicenter. If an aftershock is significantly closer to a populated area, it can cause much more damage than the initial quake. One such example is the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand which killed 185 people following a much larger and more distant quake with no fatalities at all.

California

After the

insurers. The state of California specifically states that it does not back up CEA earthquake insurance, in the event that claims from a major earthquake were to drain all CEA funds, nor will it cover claims from non-CEA insurers if they were to become insolvent due to earthquake losses. [1]

Canada

There are 4,000 recorded earthquakes in Canada each year. Earthquake damage is not covered by a standard home insurance policy. In the next 50 years, there is a 30% chance of a significant earthquake in British Columbia.[2][3]

Japan

The government of

yen (about US$8.75 billion). The maximum payout in a single year to all JER insurance claim filers is 5.5 trillion yen (about US$39.4 billion); if claims exceed this amount, then the claims are pro-rated among all claimants.[7]

New Zealand

Main article: Earthquake Commission

New Zealand's Earthquake Commission (EQC) is a

disaster recovery.[9][10]

EQC was established in 1945 as the Earthquake and War Damage Commission, as part of the New Zealand Government, and was originally intended to provide coverage for earthquakes as well as war damage. Coverage was eventually extended from solely earthquake and war damage to include other natural disasters such as natural landslips, volcanic eruptions, hydrothermal activity, and tsunamis, with coverage for war damage later being removed. For residential land, storm and flood damage is covered. Cover extends over fire damage caused by any of these natural disasters.

Turkey

This section is an excerpt from Compulsory Earthquake Insurance.[edit]

Earthquake insurance for

earthquakes in Turkey is compulsory[11][12][13] for residential buildings in urban areas.[14] However it is often not enforced.[14]

The Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool was created shortly after the
2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.[16]

Industry

Earthquake insurers use simulations to estimate the risk of an earthquake; companies which do that work include CoreLogic, which acquired earthquake modeler Eqecat in 2013[17] and AIR Worldwide, which is owned by the insurance analytics firm Verisk Analytics.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-943198-21-6
    .
  2. ^ "Earthquake Insurance". Insurance Bureau of Canada.
  3. ^ Nelson, Jacqueline (10 August 2016). "At-risk B.C. municipalities consider earthquake coverage". The Globe and Mail.
  4. ^ 日本損害保険協会 － 地震に備えて Archived 2007-11-11 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on 18 May 2008.
  5. ^ Non-Life Insurance Rating Organization of Japan (24 April 2008). Earthquake Insurance in Japan (2nd ed.). Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
  6. ^ "地震保険の概要（財務省）". Archived from the original on 2008-05-24.
  7. ^ Art 4 of 地震保険に関する法律 Archived 2017-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Earthquake Commission Annual Report 2009-2010". 2010. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
  9. ^ "GeoNet – About GeoNet". Archived from the original on 2010-12-25. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  10. ^ "2006 Fulbright Awards Presented". www.scoop.co.nz.
  11. ^ "DASK | Natural Disaster Insurance Institution | Home Page". dask.gov.tr. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  12. ^ "How Earthquake Insurance Works in Turkey". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  13. ^ https://www.tcip.gov.tr. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ a b c "Global Reinsurers to Bear Bulk of Losses From Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Fitch". Insurance Journal. 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  15. ISBN 978-0-8213-6583-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  16. ^ "TCIP made claims payments within 24 hours of quake, notified reinsurers: Türk Reasürans CEO - Reinsurance News". ReinsuranceNe.ws. 2023-02-14. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  17. ^ "CoreLogic Acquires Catastrophe Modeling Firm Eqecat". Insurance Journal. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2019-07-27.
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