Take a lesson away from the flooding in Georgia

[MadHound]

A lot of people down there are going to be screwed for the simple reason that they didn't buy flood insurance. They weren't officially in a flood zone, so they thought they were save. Sad now they have to pay the price.

There is another threat out there that many people are ignoring, and that's earthquakes. I know that most of you out West are well aware of the San Andrea's fault and you have earthquake insurance. But here in the Midwest, there is a fault that has the potential of much more doing much more damage than anything out West. That is the New Madrid fault.

Back in 1811, the New Madrid let loose with an earthquake that was a 9 on the modern Richter scale. There wasn't much damage to human property since there weren't many humans out here then. Yet there is still evidence of permanent alteration of the landscape, new courses for both the Missouri and Mississippi River, new lakes, new sinkholes, etc. etc. Meanwhile the quake was felt all the way back East where it rang bells in New York and Boston while sloshing the water in wells in South Carolina. Physical damage was done in Indiana and Ohio, where people feared for their lives as their houses were shifted off of foundations.

Since then there hasn't been much seismic activity. My grandmother told me of one occurrence in 1895 when she was a child. Apparently the Mississippi River ran back wards for awhile, and there was damage to buildings in St. Louis and surrounding area. The second major occurrence was in 1968, when I was a kid. Where I was living in Missouri, it was just a shake, but apparently there was damage around the Illinois/Kentucky border area and the quake was felt as far away as Boston where buildings swayed.

If New Madrid goes off, it has the potential to be the largest quake, both in terms of money and damage, that this country has ever seen. But most people have yet to think of this when buying insurance. Getting earthquake insurance in the heartland of the US is cheap however, it costs me forty dollars a year for a policy that covers my house and outbuildings. I would suggest that if you live in MO, TN, KY, IL, IN, MS and AR that you invest in earthquake insurance. Hopefully you'll never need it. But after two hundred years of pressure building up, you never know what might happen, and you might just be happy that you have it.

[RebelOne]

1. Well, it seems that no one wants to sell flood insurance now.

I live in a mobile home northwest of Atlanta, but it is on high ground. The apartment complex next to my mobile home park flooded because a creek overflowed. So, to be on the safe side, I decided to add flood insurance to my mobile home insurance policy. I can't get anyone to return my calls to the insurance company. I finally called and left a message that they deserved an F grade in customer service.

[lynne]

2. Most all agents sell flood insurance, call another one -

- Here's a link to find a flood insurance agent. If one doesn't respond to your inquiry, try another.
http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pages/choose_your_policy/agent_locator.jsp

[NNN0LHI]

3. The flow of the Mississippi was reversed during the quake of 1811/1812

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake

I have always had earthquake insurance by the way.

Don