Mary Lou Jay

If your home were to be destroyed or harmed in a natural or manmade disaster, would you be covered by insurance? Although most homeowner's insurance and renter's policies will cover damage caused by tornadoes (wind damage), most won't pay for damage inflicted by these disasters:

• Terrorism
• War
• Nuclear accidents
• Floods
• Earthquakes

Although there's no readily available insurance that you can buy as financial protection against the first three disasters, you do have options when it comes to floods and earthquakes.

Flood protection
Over the past several years, about 60 percent of all declared disasters in the United States have involved flooding, according to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) notes that nearly25 percent of those flood claims come from outside high-risk flood plains.

The U.S. government, through NFIP, offers special flood insurance through many private insurers. These policies cover losses from flooding caused by hurricanes, winter storms, snowmelts, spring thaws, nor'easters and similar events.

Flood insurance also will pay for damage caused by mudflows (a river of liquid and flowing mud). But flood insurance won't pay for damage caused by mudslides, which usually are defined as a movement of land (mud sliding off a hillside and covering a house, for example). Some separate mudslide policies are available, but they're expensive.

Flood insurance doesn’t work quite the same way as a standard homeowner's insurance policy. For one thing, you must buy overage separately for your building and for its contents (your personal possessions such as clothing, furniture and electronic equipment). Flood insurance coverage through NFIP is limited to $250,000 in coverage for single-family homes and condominiums, and $100,000 in coverage for contents. People who rent homes or apartments can buy the content coverage.

Premiums for flood insurance through NFIP can run as low as $119 a year for homeowners and $39 a year for renters in areas with low to moderate flood risks.

Earthquake insurance
You may think earthquakes are a rare occurrence in the United States, but the Insurance Information Institute reports that about 5,000 earthquakes occur in this country every year. Over the past 100 years, all 50 states have experienced earthquake-related damage.

Most insurers do offer optional earthquake protection, either as a rider to your homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance policy or as a separate policy. California residents also have the option of purchasing, through participating insurance companies, policies offered by the California Earthquake Authority, a publicly managed, privately funded organization.

The cost of earthquake coverage varies according to a home’s location, value and age.  California residents can get an estimate of the cost by using the earthquake insurance premium calculator on the California Earthquake Authority website.