Japanese Earthquake ???

[trimatty471]

Keep in mind that I live on the east coast and have never experience an earthquake. Where do people find the funds to rebuild after any natural disaster?

[Gardening Grandma]

I don't know about others. We carry earthquake coverage. It's a separate policy from our HO and costs us about $150/yr. Our regular HO policy specifically excludes earthquakes - probably because we live in an earthquake zone.

[SVT]

Insurance.

[MN-Investor]

Back in '87 the Twin Cities had about 4" of rain on one day and 7" of rain a couple days later and there was major flooding throughout the area. The company where I worked was in a low lying area and probably 2/3 of the facility had water in it. Fortunately we also had a facility in California and our insurance department had just updated the catastrophic portion of the insurance policy. So, although the additional rider was envisioned to take care of earthquake damage, it ended up paying for our flood!

[Deleted]

Lots of times the gov't will set up some sort of fund.

[MN-Investor]

Even if residents of Japan can get earthquake insurance, I wonder if they can get tsunami insurance.

[azphx1972]

I guess some people will be lucky to get reimbursement from their insurance companies, some might get assistance from the government, some may get help from charitable organizations, and some will simply have to start over again.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

From Wikipedia ...

The government of Japan created the "Japanese Earthquake Reinsurance" scheme in 1966, and the scheme has been revised several times since.[1][2] Homeowners may buy earthquake insurance from an insurance company as an optional rider to a fire insurance policy.[3] Insurers enrolled in the JER scheme who have to pay earthquake claims to homeowners share the risk among themselves and also the government, through the JER. The government pays a much larger proportion of the claims if a single earthquake causes aggregate damage of over about 1 trillion yen (about US $8.75 billion). The maximum payout in a single year to all JER insurance claim filers is 4.5 trillion yen (about US $39.4 billion); if claims exceed this amount, then the claims are pro-rated among all claimants.[4]

[Deleted]

Wiki is fine for general information as long as the entry does not have disclaimers at the top... if it says it is poorly cited, or about to be pulled... then i wouldn't use it... but its adequate for general knowledge type stuff... a good enough place to start...

[robbase]

wiki is the same website that reported Sinbad as dying when he was still alive

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Well, most of the reputable sources about the Japanese earthquake insurance industry were in Japanese, and I didn't feel up to translating those sources for the general purpose of this thread.... so I posted a snippet from Wikipedia so people could make their own determinations about the validity (or lack thereof) of the source.

[Poppet]

quake insurance. $250 a year. I have to pay a huge deducible. Something like $25K (last time I checked) before the insurance kicks in.

[Gardening Grandma]

Mar 13, 2011 1:45:40 GMT -5 Poppet said:

quake insurance. $250 a year. I have to pay a huge deducible. Something like $25K (last time I checked) before the insurance kicks in.

I'd forgotten about that deductibe. I think ours is like 20% of the total. I so hope we never need our earthquake coverage.

[swamp]

Mar 12, 2011 19:47:47 GMT -5 @patstab said:

I read that only 10% of the people there have earthquake insurance as its very expensive.

I have earthquake insurance, it costs me about $100 a year, I live in Upstate NY, where there is the occasional earthquake. I can remember 3 or 4 or them, but none of them large enough to cause significant damage.

[trimatty471]

Mar 13, 2011 1:45:40 GMT -5 Poppet said:

quake insurance. $250 a year. I have to pay a huge deducible. Something like $25K (last time I checked) before the insurance kicks in.

GEEZ!

[DVM gone riding]

well if it kills a large number of claimees I guess the insurance companies don't have to worry about paying them. Some how I doubt the thought on most of their minds is how are they going to rebuild but more thank God we are alive and praying to find those that are missing. It blows my mind how many are dead in a well developed country that was supposed to be prepared for something like this!

[Gardening Grandma]

Mar 13, 2011 18:14:26 GMT -5 DVM gone riding said:

well if it kills a large number of claimees I guess the insurance companies don't have to worry about paying them. Some how I doubt the thought on most of their minds is how are they going to rebuild but more thank God we are alive and praying to find those that are missing. It blows my mind how many are dead in a well developed country that was supposed to be prepared for something like this!

Japan was/is better prepared for earthquakes than the US. They have stricter building codes. Keep in mind this is the biggest recorded earthquake in Japan's history and the 4th largest anywhere since they began recording them. They issued tsunami warnings very shortly after the earthquake hit - without those warnings the death toll could have been much higher. I don't know how much one can prepare for a 30 foot high wave rushing as fast as a jet and going inland for six miles.