Increasing Quakes Have Many Oklahomans Considering Earthquake Insurance

There aren't any reports of damage or injuries after yet another Oklahoma earthquake. It's the latest in a series of small quakes over the weekend. The latest one, a 3.9, happened a little after 2 a.m. Monday, about 21 miles North of Enid.

None of the earthquakes caused problems, but they sure have more Oklahomans thinking about earthquake insurance.

Darin Cooley is among the growing number of Oklahomans who've felt the earth move as earthquakes are happening more frequently. He felt one tremor this weekend even though the earthquake was 90 miles away from his Tulsa home.

7/14/2014 Related Story: More Quakes Recorded In North, Central Oklahoma

"I felt a little rumbling and I thought ‘well it's just a big truck driving by or something,’ and I didn't think anything of it. And I checked the internet about 15, 30 minutes later and it said, sure enough, a 4.3 hit Guthrie," Cooley said.

Cooley is now considering adding earthquake insurance to his homeowner’s policy.

"It may be a good thing to do with owning a house and things like that," he said.

Before a 2011 earthquake, which was the most powerful one recorded in Oklahoma, hardly anyone in the state even thought about earthquake insurance; but that’s changing.

Insurance agent Mark Tedford said earthquake policies are inexpensive, but they do typically have higher deductibles than standard homeowner’s policies.

"When someone is buying a new policy, maybe buying a home, they're asking for earthquake coverage where they weren't before," Tedford said.

Some companies have a post-earthquake lockout period of at least 30 days, where you can't purchase earthquake coverage, because of the possibility of aftershocks.

"Probably the biggest misconception people have is that they already have coverage on their policy. The standard homeowner policy doesn't automatically include earthquake coverage; they have to ask for it," Tedford said.

A few years ago, the Oklahoma Geological Survey recorded fewer than 1,000 quakes in 2012, but more than 2,800 were recorded last year.

This year, with five and a half months to go, there have already been about 2,300.