While dining on sushi in a lovely 1916 brick home last night the topic of the Japanese earthquake came up. When I asked if anyone at the dinner party had earthquake insurance, it was clear the answer was no. Today's (4/10/11 p. B 1 & 8) Salt Lake Tribune featured an article, "Utahns urged to gird historic homes for quakes." Virtually all of Utah (and much of the west) is earthquake country. It's not a matter of IF but when our big one will hit. Because Japan leads the world in research on building structures to resist damage from earthquakes, most of the buildings would have weathered the quake with mild to moderate damage. However, the massive devastation was due to the tsunami. In addition to buying earthquake insurance, minor structural and interior changes will reduce the damage from a quake. Check out my postings of 3/10/10 and 3/3/11 for basic info on planning for a quake and quake insurance. HO insurance does NOT cover earthquake damage! (You can search my blog for key words to find previous posts about topics of interest.)
However, historic unreinforced masonry buildings need additional structural reinforcement. Thanks to SLT writer Lisa Schencker for these links:
Bracing for the big one: Seismic retrofit of historic houses
Utah Guide for the Seismic Improvement of unreinforced masonry dwellings (lengthy document):
http://ussc.utah.gov/utahseismic/
Don't procrastinate. Stay tuned for an update on flood insurance.
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