Quake damage ‘minimal’ here

April 25, 2008 09:27 am

— By PAUL LORENZ
paul.lorenz@mcleansborotimesleader.com
McLEANSBORO — The greatest impact of Friday’s earthquake in Southern Illinois may have been the number of people contacting their insurance agents.
The magnitude 5.2 earthquake occurred at 4:37 am Friday and was centered about 38 miles north-northwest of Evansville, Ind., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake did no significant damage in Hamilton County, local officials say.
Bill Sandusky, coordinator of Hamilton County Emergency and Disaster Services, said Monday there were no major incidents or damage as a result of the quake.
Both the McLeansboro Police and Hamilton County Sheriff’s departments received calls wanting to know if what had happened was an earthquake, spokespeople for those departments said Monday.
Since the quake, people here have been checking with their insurance agents to find out where they stand regarding earthquake coverage.
“We had several calls from people asking whether they had coverage and how a claim would be handled,” Ted Broyles of Country Insurance & Financial Services said.
But as of Monday, his office had had no actual claims, he added.
Companywide, State Farm has had 68 claims combined in Illinois and Indiana since the quake, Tim Smith, a local State Farm agent, said Tuesday.
“We’ve probably had four or five calls so far,” Smith said.
“Damage has been very minimal,” he added, noting reports of drywall, foundation and some chimney cracks.
Smith noted that most of his policyholders do have earthquake coverage, which is an “add on” to most homeowner policies. However, in the case of manufactured homes, earthquake coverage is automatically included, he said.
Classified as "moderate," Friday's quake was followed by aftershocks, the largest a magnitude 4.6 that occurred at 10:15 a.m., the USGS reported.
As of Monday afternoon, the USGS had received 14 reports from McLeansboro and three from Dahlgren regarding the quake early Friday.
On average, those reports characterized the shaking as “light.”
The earthquake occurred in an area known seismically as the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, according to the USGS.
Friday's event was the strongest earthquake in Southern Illinois since November 1968, when a 5.4 earthquake occurred.
At the 1968 quake’s epicenter, near Dale in Hamilton County, damage included downed chimneys, cracked foundations, overturned tombstones, and scattered instances of collapsed parapets, according to USGS earthquake history for Illinois.
A two-story brick house near Dale sustained several thousand dollars damage, the report stated.