5.4 quake in Chicago

[Michael Merino]

I am just outside of Chicago and it woke my wife. It shook the downtown buildings including the Sears tower according to security there. I believe the San Madrid fault is the largest or longest fault in the country.

Anyway, I know the reasoning behind having inspections after the quake. But, why would there be inspections for HI's? Wouldn't the insurance companies do the inspection? Or do the insurance companies hire HI's to do the inspection? Or maybe the homeowner wants a second opinion? Or maybe I am too new to know what I am talking about? The latter being the more probable answer.

[bdoles2]

Originally Posted by rmaday

Ditto!

Earthquakes in the midwest? A foot of hail in Texas?

Lots of strange stuff going on.

Don't forget the tornado in a big city.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

5.4 earthquake? We don't get out of bed unless it's above a 6 in California.

Now it it rains 1/4 of an inch there will be 1,000 traffic jams and a 10 minute drive turns into 2 hours as people here don't understand the concept of oil and water not mixing.

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by dmaricic

5.4 earthquake? We don't get out of bed unless it's above a 6 in California.

Now it it rains 1/4 of an inch there will be 1,000 traffic jams and a 10 minute drive turns into 2 hours as people here don't understand the concept of oil and water not mixing.

This was just a warm up, the big ones coming your way.

You wouldn't survive here, we've said records for total rainfall in both Feb. and March. It's raining here now, after the 2 'big' morning earthquakes.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

I like rain, that's why I want to move out of here! I lived in the mountains here for 10 years. It's these other folks that can't figure rain out

The big one coming here... that's another reason to get the heck out!

[mnahrgang]

This quake wasn't from the famous New Madrid Fault. It was probably a hundred miles from it. There are a ton of different faults in this part of the country. We just don't get very many quakes from them that you can feel, so they don't get a lot of attention.

As for inspections as a result of the quake, I just got back from inspecting a couple of new cracks in a ladies basement (no big deal), set up a radon test for her, and arragned for a level II evaluation of her chimney.

[Michael Merino]

Originally Posted by Michael Merino

I am just outside of Chicago and it woke my wife. It shook the downtown buildings including the Sears tower according to security there. I believe the San Madrid fault is the largest or longest fault in the country.

Anyway, I know the reasoning behind having inspections after the quake. But, why would there be inspections for HI's? Wouldn't the insurance companies do the inspection? Or do the insurance companies hire HI's to do the inspection? Or maybe the homeowner wants a second opinion? Or maybe I am too new to know what I am talking about? The latter being the more probable answer.

Can anybody explain? Please

[mnahrgang]

Originally Posted by Michael Merino

Can anybody explain? Please

In my case the gal's deductable for "earthquake insurance" was $40K. So the insurance company didn't really care. Any repairs were going to be out of her pocket anyway unless her house was falling down. So she just wanted someone to tell her if she needed to have something done, and if so, what.

She was also concerned that her chimney flue might have become disconnected, and was concerned that she might now have new pathways into her home for radon.

Who better to call than an independant, non-biased HI?

Seemed like a pretty smart lady, and good reasons to call. (And of course, I am glad she did. )

[jhugenroth]

Originally Posted by jpope

5.4? That's hardly worth even getting out of bed. . .

I was thinking the same thing Jeff.

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by jhugenroth

I was thinking the same thing Jeff.

5.4 is just a tremor isn't it?

I spent a summer working in Mammoth Lakes California, and have never experinced the ground move so much before or after.
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/Long_Valley.html

http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html

[Russel Ray]

I'm jealous.

[David E. Parkhill]

The quake was on the Wabash fault and the center was close to Mt. Carmel, IL which is about 45 minutes from me. There was a second quake about 10:15 but it was not quite as strong. The last big one we had on that fault was 1968.