State Will Cap Quake Insurance Rates in 14 ZIP Codes in County

It may seem surprising that 14 ZIP Codes of Ventura County are in one of only four rating territories in California where the risk of earthquake damages is so great that the state has decided the quake insurance rate should be capped.

The cap on the basic rate is $5.25 per $1,000 in coverage, and it applies only in the San Francisco Bay Area and parts of Ventura, Imperial, Riverside, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.

Earthquake policyholders in the rest of the state, 15 other rating territories, are paying 9% more so that the rate can be held down in the counties, or ZIP Codes, where the cap applies.

The 14 Ventura County ZIP Codes involved are: Thousand Oaks 91360, Westlake Village, 91361, Camarillo Heights 93010, Camarillo 93012, Ventura 93003 and 93004, Oxnard 93030, 93033, 93035 and 93031, Port Hueneme 93041, Point Mugu Naval Base 93042, Santa Paula 93060 and Somis 93066.

Dennis E. Kuzak of the quake modeling firm EQE International, which designed the new California Earthquake Authority, said the calculations of comparative risk are based on a probabilistic hazard assessment for the future, rather than on records of damaging quakes.

Santa Barbara County, for instance, has had more damaging quakes in this century than the Ventura County ZIP Codes where the rates have been capped. But, Kuzak said, “there are many faults in Ventura County with a potential for rupture.”

Also, he said, certain ZIP Codes in the county have weak soils, where quake intensities would be magnified if big quakes were to occur.

In the capped Camarillo Heights ZIP Code of 93010, he said, potential earthquake losses were rated higher than anywhere else in the county, higher than $8 per $1,000 in coverage, due to soils that are “predominately poor quality, although not the worst.”

By contrast, however, the EQE evaluation found that Westlake Village ZIP Code 91361 “is on better soil. There is a high percentage of very good soil, and the difference in loss costs would be a factor of four times less than the capped ZIP Code in Camarillo,” Kuzak said.

The earthquake insurance rate in ZIP Code 91361 is only $1.98 per $1,000 coverage.

Soils are “a very, very important factor,” Kuzak said.