Any home or property owner watching the pictures of devastation out of Haiti as a result of this week's magnitude 7.2 earthquake — the leveled buildings and injured people pulled from the rubble — would be justified in asking: Am I covered? That deadly earthquake struck Haiti on Sat., Aug. 14, 2021, and left at least 1,400 people dead and another 6,000 people injured. Catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Co.'s Caribbean Earthquake Reference Model estimated the insurable losses from the quake to be around $1.7 billion and the insured losses from the event to be around $250 million.

Who needs earthquake insurance?

Earthquake damage will not be covered by standard property insurance policies, including homeowners, renters or business owner's insurance. Instead, insureds must protect themselves from earthquakes either by securing an endorsement on an existing policy or by purchasing earthquake insurance. The states in the U.S. where property owners are most likely to need earthquake insurance are California, Washington and Oregon, according to Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) research, which compiled from annual premium reporting collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and S&P Global Market Intelligence. The slideshow above illustrates the top 10 writers of earthquake insurance writers, based on 2020 premium reporting. The data does not reflect reinsurance transactions but does include state funds. The most expensive earthquakes on record (so far), as tracked by Munich Re and the I.I.I., include one that hit Japan in 2011 and caused $210 million in damage and 15,880 fatalities; another that struck Japan in 1995 and caused $100 million in damage 6,430 fatalities; and a third that shook southern California in 1994, causing $44 million in damages and 61 fatalities. See also:

• These earthquakes, tsunamis led to the biggest insurance losses
• 2018's Top 10 writers of earthquake insurance
• Earthquake aftershocks: When does business income coverage apply?