The recent 4.8 magnitude quake in the state is becoming an increasingly common event where it was once rare.
Insurers and agencies in Kansas are reporting that they have been receiving a flood of inquiries with regards to earthquake insurance coverage, following last week’s tremor that was measured at 4.8 on the Richter scale.
Traditionally, this has not been a state in which there has been all that much interest in that form of insurance policy.
Employees of insurance offices, particularly in the Wichita area, have been reporting that they have been receiving a steady stream of phone calls since the day following the quake. There hasn’t been very much of a history of earthquake insurance inquiries within the state, but the recent tremor has been a sudden reminder that just because a person doesn’t happen to be a resident of California, it doesn’t mean that they will never experience an event in which the ground shakes beneath them.
The price and deductibles for earthquake insurance in Kansas are comparatively quite low.
Insurance Information Institute data was cited by the Kansas Insurance Department, pointing out that only 7 percent of homeowners throughout the Midwest carry an insurance policy that covers against potential damage from earthquakes.
In Kansas, this isn’t too surprising as it has previously been very uncommon for earthquakes to occur in the state. However, there have already been dozens of tremors within the state, this year, with the largest occurring last week. The state is bringing in more equipment to help to be able to look into the cause of these events.
Many have pointed a finger at the oil and gas drilling activities in the state that use a practice called hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, particularly in the areas of the wells that are used by the industry for its wastewater disposal. That said, a panel that was commissioned by Kansas Governor Sam Brownback recently issued a report that said that there was inadequate evidence, so far, to blame the quakes in the state on fracking.
According to the owner of the Wichita based Chapple Insurance Group, earthquake insurance “is almost a no-brainer, especially with these tremors we’re having.”
