A state legislator is working with a veteran petroleum geologist to come up with a strategy.
As the sales of earthquake insurance continue to rise in Oklahoma due to the exploding rate of tremors in the state, a state legislator has now started working with an experienced petroleum geologist in order to develop an emergency plan for dealing with this new risk.
They are also calling on other experts in various fields to provide their assistance in this effort.
State Senator Jerry Ellis and geologist Bob Jackman are working to create a federal task force that will help to manage the issue behind these quakes. As earthquake insurance becomes a growing necessity for many homeowners in the state, the hope is that this won’t be the only action that can be taken in order to help residents and businesses to protect themselves against possible harm and damage.
The goal is to make earthquake insurance only one of several things that can be done to overcome this challenge.
The hope is that the team will be made up of representatives from the Oklahoma Geological Survey, the U.S. Geological Survey, geophysicists, seismologists, and hydrogeologists from the petroleum industry in the state. The findings from the federal task force would also face independent peer review by the experts at the National Academy of Sciences.
The task force will be assigned the effort of examining and evaluating all of the national Earth science that has been published, as well as the studies that are ongoing and which have to do with the types of earthquakes that have been shaking the state.
Jackman stated that “An emergency exists in central Oklahoma, with its accelerated and unprecedented increase in frequency and magnitude of apparently man-made earthquakes.” A statement from Ellis complemented Jackman’s thoughts, when Ellis said that “We need to act, not react,” adding that “We’d better not wait ‘til a high Richter-scale earthquake occurs, causing disastrous damages to homes, roads, bridges, schools and hospitals – as well as oil and gas well surface and subsurface casing and pumps.”
For now, all that can be recommended is for homeowners to protect themselves with earthquake insurance, but the hope is that there will be something more to offer in the not too distant future.
