Property damage totals from earthquakes add up in Oklahoma

January 06, 2012
By: Jana Bell

Roughly two months after a string of unusually strong earthquakes rattled residents, officials in the state of Oklahoma are now getting a handle on the extent of the damage.

A spokesperson for the state's emergency management office told The Oklahoman that the earthquakes left 64 homes uninhabitable, completely destroying six of them. Nearly 200 other homes were also damaged to a lesser degree.

Unfortunately, officials also said that 90 percent of the families that suffered damage didn't have earthquake coverage included with their home insurance policies, since strong tremors are relatively uncommon in the region. One resident told the paper that the event has shaken many people and driven others away from the area.

"I've never been around earthquakes before, so I don't what to expect," business owner Mark Armitage told the source. "Some people have totally evacuated the area ... they aren't coming back."

Small tremors have continued since the earthquakes began in November. The most powerful, which carried a magnitude of 5.6 on November 5, was the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma.

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