It’s a risk many Californians take in some of the most expensive housing markets in the US even though they’re living on a web of active fault lines. “It’s a gamble to not have it,” Rio Dell City Manager Kyle Knopp said.Ī whopping 90% of homes in California aren’t covered by earthquake insurance, according to Glenn Pomeroy, CEO of the California Earthquake Authority, a nonprofit quake insurer established by the state. The destruction in Rio Dell has laid bare the risk that many in California run – living in a state that has more damage-causing quakes than any other – without taking, or being able to afford to take, precautions that could limit the destruction and the financial ruin that would follow. The December 20 quake ripped McIntosh's house off its foundation and left it unlivable, she said.
They and others in the city are also among the millions of Californians who don’t have earthquake insurance to help cover repairs, and among the hundreds of thousands who were living in older homes that have not been retrofitted to meet current seismic building codes. The McIntoshes are among hundreds still dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake in Rio Dell. “Now I literally have a giant lawn ornament that’s going to bankrupt me.” “It’s not worth anything,” said McIntosh, who had just found a buyer for their home when the jolt hit. Six months later, McIntosh is still paying a mortgage on a house that would cost an estimated $150,000 to fix out of pocket, she told CNN. Their house was red-tagged – that is, deemed too dangerous to live in by inspectors. The December 20, 2022, quake – which left two people dead and forced hundreds out of their homes – ripped McIntosh’s house off its foundation and shifted it 22 inches to the east, leaving it unlivable, McIntosh said. “I really didn’t think we were going to make it,” she tearfully recalls her husband telling her that day. Neighbors were screaming, and the state’s earthquake alerts were blaring on phones. McIntosh remembers rushing downstairs after the shaking stopped, and being hit in the face by natural gas from a broken line. A 6.4 magnitude earthquake had just struck Rio Dell, California, upending homes and lives for the community of 3,400 people near Oregon. Their entire home was shaking so violently, it split their bed apart – sending them tumbling down the middle. Just days before Christmas, Jacqui McIntosh and her husband awoke around 2:34 a.m.
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