Volcano Insurance in Seattle?

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Rozie1993

Okay so I have done tons of research on MT. Rainer. IT WILL BE THE BIGGEST CATASTROPHE THE US HAS EVER SEEN!!!!!! There will be no need for insurance. Everything will be gone. I hope people realize that. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but people need to reasearch this stuff. The comments and replys on here are nuts. The estimated death rate is looking like 26,000. That's on a low scale. We are looking at billions and billions of dollars in damage. Puyallup, Orting, tacoma, Auburn, Kent, Des Moins, Eatonville, Yelm, Graham, Spanaway, Roy, Lakewood, will be gone. It will end in down town Seattle. We have had 20 mini quakes on Mt Rainer in the last 30 days. This is going to be bigger and more devastating than anything the US has ever seen.

And when Yellowstone blows, it will also be the BIGGEST CATASTROPHE THE US HAS EVER SEEN!!! Ditto, when the Big Earthquake hits the Puget Sound region.

So...meh.

[mhays25]

Juuuust a bit of alarmism here. Anyone who has actually researched this stuff (not the crackpot version) knows that eruptions can be highly variable, and nobody mainstream has predicted anything remotely as bad as this guy is saying. I suspect someone's worst-case scenario that might happen in the next 10,000 years or something got misinterpreted.

[AADAD]

Depending upon force of explosion, wind direction and other variables Seattle could be blanketed with ash.

Get out your panty hose for your air cleaners.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by bloom

I don't know, I don't know, where I'm a gonna go when the volcano blows

Go with the flow, down the river!

[tudorjason]

Originally Posted by Rozie1993

Okay so I have done tons of research on MT. Rainer. IT WILL BE THE BIGGEST CATASTROPHE THE US HAS EVER SEEN!!!!!! There will be no need for insurance. Everything will be gone. I hope people realize that. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but people need to reasearch this stuff. The comments and replys on here are nuts. The estimated death rate is looking like 26,000. That's on a low scale. We are looking at billions and billions of dollars in damage. Puyallup, Orting, tacoma, Auburn, Kent, Des Moins, Eatonville, Yelm, Graham, Spanaway, Roy, Lakewood, will be gone. It will end in down town Seattle. We have had 20 mini quakes on Mt Rainer in the last 30 days. This is going to be bigger and more devastating than anything the US has ever seen.

This is a little over-dramatic in terms of areas affected, and I'll describe below.

Originally Posted by mhays25

Juuuust a bit of alarmism here. Anyone who has actually researched this stuff (not the crackpot version) knows that eruptions can be highly variable, and nobody mainstream has predicted anything remotely as bad as this guy is saying. I suspect someone's worst-case scenario that might happen in the next 10,000 years or something got misinterpreted.

From my previous research, and yes, these are worst-case scenario people have been saying. the lahar will be several hundred feet high if it goes in northwest direction. This is because once the lahar reaches valleys, the flow will be forced through narrower passageways than compared to something like flowing on an open plain. The specific rivers the flow need to use are the Carbon, Puyallup, and Nisqually Rivers. Previous major lahars have reached. These rivers feed right to Commencement Bay in Tacoma. Because it will be in flat valleys, it will reach other rivers that will flow north, such as the Green and White Rivers. This is how lahars have reached the south Seattle area around Harbor Island from the Duwamish Waterway. The same will be true as the lahar goes west toward Tacoma, albeit it will be worse off than Seattle.

The reason it may sound unfeasible for some to comprehend how much damage would occur from a lahar from Mount Rainier is because they don't know how much glacial ice is on the mountain. More glacial ice is on Mount Rainier than anywhere else in the contiguous US combined.

Now, the height won't be as high when it passes the Auburn area going north. It will start to level off. Because of this, cities on hills, such as most parts of Des Moines and nearby cities, will be okay. They'll still have to deal with ash of course. Going south, Eatonville, Graham, Spanaway, and Roy are all on higher elevations. Spanaway is at about 500 feet and most of that area with Graham and Roy is on a large plateau. Unfortunately, I spent my upper teens and early 20s in north central Pierce County, so I know the topography very well. And Yelm is too far away. Granted I've only been there once and that was recent, it is much closer to Olympia and Puget Sound than the Orting and Puyallup river valleys.

Not only do we have to be concerned about the lahar, and the ash, from a Mount Rainier eruption, no matter the direction, most don't consider how weak the actual rock of the mountain is. Those glaciers are basically holding the mountain together. When the glaciers melt, the mountain will lose some of its height, and all that rock has to go somewhere also.

A lahar will definitely be devastating for the region, but of course it won't beat a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, or a Yelllowstone eruption.

Though when a Mount Rainier eruption happens, obviously that's anyone's guess, but the fact remains it could happen at any time.

[Sonnenwende]

With my HO insurance it was part of the earthquake rider. I live in a low impact area for my local volcano, Glacier Peak, but not no possible impact.

This is a fun map to play with:

https://geologyportal.dnr.wa.gov/#natural_hazards

[AleeGee]

State Farm, Trusted Choice and Esurance. The only areas really that might be in trouble are Wilkeson, Buckley, Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps, Carbonado and Eatonville.