Local Underwriters Feel No Aftershocks From Bay Area Quake : Insurance: Companies begin routine moratoriums on new policies. Agents are bracing for an expected flood of inquiries just the same.

Orange County homeowners were not panicked by the earthquake that devastated the San Francisco Bay area. Local insurance agents reported Wednesday that business was not booming as a result of Tuesday’s quake.

“I was surprised,” said Gary Blackburn, who expected more calls at his State Farm Insurance Co. office in Mission Viejo. “We’ve sold a few earthquake policies today, but the phone hasn’t been ringing off the hook.”

But in Northern California, a call would have been of little use. Residents there found that earthquake insurance is hard to come by just when it seems like a good idea--right after a quake.

Insurers typically suspend the sale of new earthquake policies for three to 30 days after a quake, industry officials said. That’s to guard against fraud and to avoid paying claims from aftershocks that normally follow a quake.

The Farmers Group insurance company, based in Los Angeles, has instituted a 30-day moratorium on sales of earthquake insurance in 20 counties surrounding the quake’s epicenter, spokesman Jeffrey C. Beyer said. But the insurance is available in Southern California.

“It’s fairly common to have a moratorium like this,” he added.

Allstate Insurance Co. called a 30-day moratorium throughout California on issuing the policies to current customers. Allstate, the only major carrier to issue a statewide moratorium, put a similar statewide hold two years ago after the Whittier quake.

Though business wasn’t brisk in Southern California, it may well pick up through the rest of this week, said Bill Allen, a Farmers Insurance Co. agent in Huntington Beach. “We’ll probably be inundated by calls soon,” he said.

In any case, homeowners and tenants may want to think twice about such insurance and should consult an agent, the Western Insurance Information Service said.

Earthquake coverage, which is added to regular homeowners’ policies, can be expensive, carries high deductibles and might not be necessary. Most ordinary homeowners’ policies will cover much of the damage that might accompany a quake--damage from fire or water, for example.

Similarly, autos damaged by falling walls would likely be covered under comprehensive auto insurance.

Earthquake policies generally pay for damage not otherwise covered, as well as relocation costs if a homeowner is displaced. But because such coverage is meant for a catastrophe, it carries steep deductibles, generally around 10% applied separately to a building and its contents.

The owner of a $250,000 home in Oakland, for example, could be liable for up to $25,000 in damage from an earthquake, even with a quake policy. And the owner would face an additional deductible for losses to the home’s contents.

Costs vary. For a wood-frame home--the most typical California house--premiums range from $2 to $4 per $1,000 of coverage, according to the Western Insurance Information Service in Tustin.

Rates are higher if the house has a brick veneer. Rates also run higher on the coast or in the counties east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range--both areas of high quake activity.

A 1985 California law required insurance companies to offer earthquake coverage to all homeowners and tenants, though residents are not obliged to buy it. After the law passed, the percentage of homeowners with such coverage grew from 7% to 20%.

By comparison, between 15% and 25% of state businesses buy earthquake coverage, according to the Insurance Information Institute.