Kansans encouraged to buy quake insurance

TOPEKA, Kansas - Kansas’ top insurance official is encouraging residents to purchase earthquake insurance.

"Recent earthquakes in Colorado, Oklahoma and the east coast of the United States have made Kansans more aware of the possible need to purchase earthquake insurance," Sandy Praeger, Kansas Insurance Commissioner, said in release Tuesday.

Praeger says Kansas has its own fault – the Humboldt fault zone – that runs along the Nemaha Ridge from Wamego, east of Manhattan to El Dorado.

The zone is a part of the mid-continent rift, which runs east to the Great Lakes area and is where the continental crust broke apart during the earth’s early days.

“Although most of us have heard of the New Madrid fault in Missouri, many don’t know that Kansas has a fault zone running through it too,” Praeger said.