Thankfully a majority of the injuries in town were superficial cuts and scratches and the little boy who was crushed by a falling chimney is now in stable condition. The worst of it is the total loss of property; even for those who have earthquake insurance, the deductible can be astronomical.
"With earthquake coverage, your deductible is based on a percentage of your overall policy limit. If the structure of your home is insured to $500,000, the quake insurance deductible will typically amount to 15% of that, or $75,000. In some cases, you can choose a lower deductible -- say 10% of the structure limits -- but this deductible will almost always be set as a percentage of the policy limit. In some states you can find deductibles as low as 2% of structure limits, but the deductibles are higher in the states where earthquake risk is highest, such as California, Washington and Oregon."
We lost a lot of kitchen items, picture frames and stemware... and the chimney is toast (along with/ 80% of the chimneys in napa) but thankfully even with a broken gas line no one was injured in my household, and most things are reparable or replaceable. My thoughts go out to Jill and Steve and Carole who sustained huge losses in their wineries.
It was a pretty impressive response by PG&E though. Gotta hand it to the guys working 18 hour days to ensure safety.