It’s true! in February 2010, a mild earthquake rattled Chicago (600+ comments) with a 3.8 on the Richter scale. Mild, yes. Damage, limited. Scary, definitely.
I just hope that this didn’t cause damage at my work since we stack large heavy items on top of one another, in Aurora.
So we thought that this is great time to discuss earthquake coverage because they can cause damage including broken pipes, foundations and walls. First, we want to let all of you know that earthquake coverage is not included on a regular home owner’s policy. A check of our policies show only a handful of people purchased the coverage. It is a policy endorsement that needs to be purchased and added to your policy.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or are interested adding earthquake coverage. There is a seven day waiting period to add the coverage after the last tremor.
Flood Insurance
This is also a great opportunity to address flood insurance because broken pipes can lead to water and flood damage. This is a different coverage from Backup of Sewers and Drains, which can be easily added to your home owner’s policy. Flood insurance is a separate policy whose rates are set by the Federal Government and claims are backstopped by the Federal Government. Below is the definition of a flood:
Flood – A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or of two or more properties (at least one of which is the policyholder’s property) from one of the following:
- Overflow of inland or tidal waters
- Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source
- Mudflow
- Collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood as defined above
As you can see it is different from Sewer and Drains Backups. If you don’t live near a lake, river, or retention pond the unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source would be your greatest exposure. An example of this is when it rains so hard the gutters can’t keep up and the streets start to overflow.
Please contact us if you have any questions regarding these issues or any other questions you may have regarding your coverage.