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08-19-2008, 03:26 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2007
470 posts, read 266,349 times
Reputation: 392
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Earthquake Insurance?
Well we're finally taking the plunge and buying a house in Camas. Being new to the west coast we're not sure if we need earthquake insurance or not?
Thoughts? My husband is certain we're going to fall into the Pacific at any moment...
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08-19-2008, 11:03 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Apr 2008
72 posts, read 66,297 times
Reputation: 30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hml1976
Well we're finally taking the plunge and buying a house in Camas. Being new to the west coast we're not sure if we need earthquake insurance or not?
Thoughts? My husband is certain we're going to fall into the Pacific at any moment...
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If it's considerably cheap, you might pick it up. We don't get much in the way of earthquakes here, and the ones that we do get are very minor. HOWEVER, scientists say that the entire Northwest is in danger of a huge, huge earthquake in the future. However, it's one of those situations where "it could happen tomorrow, it could happen 300 years from now, but it'll definitely happen sometime."
For my part, I don't have earthquake insurance. I'm betting that The Big One isn't going to hit in my lifetime. YMMV. |
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08-20-2008, 10:57 AM
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Crankier than average
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Fort Klamath, OR
1,792 posts, read 1,642,331 times
Reputation: 886
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Depends on what it covers. When I looked into it, the coverage was structure only with a deductible that was about half the structure's worth. Just not worth it.
I wouldn't take the bet on the "big one" not coming in my lifetime, but I WOULD take the general bet that the damage in any one area won't actually destroy a house. Depending on what part of town - I wouldn't take the bet if I lived in the West Hills, I wouldn;t take it if I lived on a cliff over the ocean at the coast, and I might not take that bet on the flanks of Prune Hill in Camas, either, depending on how well-built the house was and how steep the slope is.
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08-20-2008, 11:00 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: WA
2,270 posts, read 2,775,696 times
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The folks I talked with, some of them who have lived here their whole life, say they never felt an earthquake. My insurance agent suggested it was a waste of money! I did check to see that my home was built to code regarding earthquakes (it is) with bolts to the foundation and cross bracing.
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08-20-2008, 11:50 AM
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Crankier than average
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Fort Klamath, OR
1,792 posts, read 1,642,331 times
Reputation: 886
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In a hundred years or so there have been 3 earthquakes over 5.0 in the Portland metro area (the most recent in 1993, the "Spring Break Quake" which was felt all through the Willamette Valley and up to Olympia). The odds that an earthquake will happen on one of the local Portland-area faults is pretty high, but it's not likely to be a HUGE earthquake. The "big one" (in the 9.0 range) would be a Cascadia subduction zone event, and they happen ever 300-500 years, according to the evidence from subsumed marshes and other core data.
USGS Earthquake Records for Oregon
USGS Earthquake Records for Washington
Last edited by PNW-type-gal; 08-20-2008 at 11:56 AM..
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