Related: Read the article “Are Policyholders Adequately Educated?” by Mark E. Ruquet.

They may be right, but miss the point. Every time anyone belittles the events affecting others, you risk missing the lesson. One of the key benefits taught in all basic insurance classes is that protection from loss helps the insured “get a good night's sleep.” But the difference between peaceful slumber and hours of anxiety is what's in my head, not yours. So maybe in California you actually get used to the ground trembling, and after a while see it as a chance to make a quick smoothie without a blender. Your East Coast compatriots are those crazy surfers who view every hurricane evacuation order as a “Surf's up!” clarion call to head for the beach. Be it earthquake or tidal wave, one man's disaster is another man's opportunity of a lifetime. An astute insurance advisor would know the key to which lies in the eye of the beholder, not the underwriter.

And asking “what lies” leads us to:

2. Fear is in the eye of the beholder

Hundreds of thousands of folks in the northeastern U.S. corridor were surprised and shocked to feel their normally stable foundations rock below their feet. And even having been through a few minor shudders in California, yours truly was astonished when what I first thought to be just another 3-second shudder due to low-flying military aircraft turned into a nearly minute-long, building-sized ride in the spin cycle. And if that wasn't enough, the sound of our 400-pound cat letting loose a banshee howl as he streaked up the stairs from his obviously no longer stable basement hideaway is a scene I will not soon forget.

I know from the media that zoning boards and building councils all over this area are now taking the potential for future earthquakes seriously. Are you? Are insurance providers now adding earthquake coverage and risk management recommendations to their checklists for our locality? I can hear some already saying, “Oh, come on, what are the odds of another one?” Exactly. You tell me, Nostradamus.

What are the odds of another Category 4 hurricane season in Florida? What are the odds my house will actually burn, and if so, what is the likelihood the fire damage will be sufficient to require insurance for the full value of my home? What we do in this industry is help people live with their fears, not the odds. If I have it in my head that someone may break into my home and steal my best stuff, I don't care that the odds of that are likely slim to none; I want theft coverage.

Related: Read the article “The Day After and the Days After That” by Mark E. Ruquet.

It works in reverse as well. The majority of agents have “fire” in their heads so deep they would go apoplectic if a person didn't see the need for basic coverage, yet few lose sleep over the real fact that the average homeowner risks 50 percent more financial loss from termites (an average of $3,000 per affected home in 2008) versus fire ($2,122 per affected home).

When it comes to reality, too many agents can't escape the mind warp of coverage classes to get their brains wrapped around what folks are really feeling, fearing and thinking. Take Grace Slick's advice and feed your head.

3. Unexpected shouldn't mean unprepared

I watched a top politician from the D.C. city government being interviewed about an ethics investigation and the reporter could not leave the proceedings without the inevitable post-Great Quake question: “So, Councilwoman, where were you when the quake hit?” Almost instantaneously this powerful woman, a leader of the local scene, unafraid to confront the highest authorities if there was even a hint of impropriety in their pursuit of official duties, turned into a clearly relieved yet shaken fellow human being. Here, as close to a direct quote as I can recall, is her reply: “I was in a meeting at my office when the shaking began. At first, we thought it was a truck going by or something, but it kept going and then got a lot stronger. Suddenly I was trying to remember—aren't you supposed to go into the bathroom or stand in the door frame or something? Was it stop, drop and roll? Then police ran through shouting 'everyone out of the building!' so we just ran out. It was terrifying!”

Reread that with your risk management, protection adviser brain in gear. What jumps out at you that may have seemed unique to her experience but is absolutely a standard pattern for losses?

First, she seems surprised the unexpected came along as she was just going about her regular duties. I'll bite: What part of “unexpected” did she miss? Even a cursory review of claims reports reveals how folks commonly are blindsided by the very events we think they all perfectly understand when they buy insurance. The clear implication is no matter how much we like to think our clients appreciate the protection we provide, in reality they see an insurance purchase as a heinous requirement by some out-of-control regulator (work comp and auto liability), bank (property) or general contractor (liability) or just a sales pitch (for all the use I'll get out of this, I should just keep the money). Perhaps we need to set aside our assumptions and start making a real effort to directly connect every recommendation to the real world.

Second, “suddenly” she was trying to remember what to do. Simple fact: The actual time you need to act is not the time to be “trying to remember.” In Yoda's famous and sage words, “There is no try; do or do not.” When the house is in flames is not the time to be thinking, “Fire extinguisher—there was something about a fire extinguisher. Oh, and how were the kids going to get out of the upstairs bedrooms again?”

Related: Read the article ”Va. Earthquake Brings Concern for Seismic Activity in Eastern U.S.”

I suggest a priority topic for all newsletter writers, bloggers, Facebook posters, Tweeters and plain old “thought I'd drop you an email” folks: “What to do in case of loss” advice. And I think you can tell from the previous parts of this article that I'm not talking about those items from the policy about filing forms and keeping receipts. Catastrophe planning is a major unmet need of clients, yet so is everyday serious, practical “What to do in case of” advice. Parents need an escape plan to get the kids out of the house. Your clients should know that protection offered by bathroom doorways is an urban myth often touted for tornadoes, and “stop, drop and roll” is for fires. Yet at least she was close on that second one: The actual earthquake advice is “stop, drop and cover,” as an effort to minimize injury from falling debris, often followed by “and hold on!”

And for those who think I exaggerate the need for and value of good insurance folks getting past the policy to really helping people understand and deal with potential losses, I offer as final evidence that the action our stressed official finally took—the very action ironically recommended and often ordered by local authorities—was exactly the wrong one: to get out of the buildings. To quote Kelly Huston, who ought to know as the assistant secretary of the California Emergency Management Agency, the time to evacuate a building is after the shock, not during. As Huston told the New York Times, “The likelihood of a high-rise building's collapsing during an initial tremor is very low. But the reality of you getting hit by a big plate-glass window that shattered and cuts you and makes you bleed to death is more likely.”

So to summarize: She never saw it coming; in confusion didn't know what to do; and as a result did exactly the wrong thing.

Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like love.