Earthquake Insurance for Missouri and Tennessee Homes

Home Insurance · Missouri and Tennessee

If you own a home in Missouri or Tennessee, there is a good chance your homeowners insurance policy would pay nothing toward repairing damage caused by an earthquake. That surprises a lot of people. Both states sit near the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the most active earthquake area in the central United States, yet the share of Missouri homes with earthquake coverage has been falling for more than twenty years. This guide explains, in plain language, why standard policies leave earthquakes out, how separate earthquake coverage works, what the deductible really means for your wallet, and how to decide whether the protection makes sense for your household.

Why earthquakes matter in Missouri and Tennessee

Most people picture earthquakes as a California problem. The central United States has its own history, and it is a dramatic one. According to the United States Geological Survey, a series of very large earthquakes struck the New Madrid Seismic Zone during the winter of 1811 and 1812. The first major shock, estimated at about magnitude 7.5, hit northeast Arkansas in the early morning hours of December 16, 1811. A second shock of about magnitude 7.3 struck Missouri on January 23, 1812, and a third of about magnitude 7.5 struck on February 7, 1812, along the Reelfoot fault in Missouri and Tennessee. The United States Geological Survey notes that the area of strong shaking from those earthquakes was two to three times as large as that of the 1964 Alaska earthquake and about ten times as large as that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The Missouri State Emergency Management Agency describes the sequence as more than 2,000 seismic events spread over roughly five months. It reports that the town of New Madrid was destroyed and that there were accounts of church bells ringing as far away as Boston. These are believed to be the largest earthquakes in recorded history east of the Rocky Mountains.

Tennessee faces risk from two directions. The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance explains that the state has two seismic zones: the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the west, near Memphis and the Mississippi River, and the East Tennessee Seismic Zone in the east. In its February 2026 Earthquake Awareness Month release, the department said scientists estimate a 25 to 40 percent probability of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake occurring in the central United States within a 50-year window. The department also noted that the central United States experiences nearly 2,000 small tremors per year, most of them too small to notice.

In Missouri, the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance describes the highest-risk area as roughly the southeast quarter of the state. That area stretches from the Bootheel (the southeastern corner of Missouri that dips south toward Arkansas) up the Mississippi River through the entire St. Louis metropolitan area. In other words, the risk is not limited to small river towns. It reaches one of the largest population centers in the region.

Does homeowners insurance cover earthquake damage?

No, not in the standard form. Both state insurance departments say this directly. The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance states that standard homeowners and renters insurance policies do not cover earthquake damage, and that coverage must be added through an endorsement or purchased as a separate policy. The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance likewise reminds consumers that traditional homeowners and business insurance policies do not cover earthquake damage.

The reason is found in a part of the policy called the earth movement exclusion. An exclusion is a section of the policy that lists causes of damage the policy will not pay for. Most homeowners policies treat earthquakes, along with other shifting or sinking of the ground, as earth movement and exclude it. This is why cracks in walls, a shifted foundation, or a collapsed chimney after an earthquake are usually not paid under the regular homeowners policy, even though that same policy would pay if a windstorm damaged the same chimney.

If you want a deeper look at what a regular Missouri homeowners policy leaves out, our guide to common gaps in Missouri home insurance coverage walks through flood, sewer backup, earth movement, and other exclusions side by side.

What about fire or flooding after an earthquake?

Damage that happens after an earthquake can be treated differently from the shaking itself. Many homeowners policies still respond to a fire that breaks out after an earthquake, because fire is a covered cause of loss, but the exact wording varies by company, so confirm it in your own policy. Flooding is a separate matter. Flood is also excluded from standard homeowners policies, so if an earthquake caused a levee or a water line to fail and water flowed into your home from outside, you would generally need a separate flood insurance policy to be protected. Earthquake coverage and flood coverage are two different products, and having one does not give you the other.

How earthquake coverage works

You can typically buy earthquake protection in one of two ways. The first is an earthquake endorsement, which attaches to your existing homeowners policy and adds earthquake as a covered cause of loss. The second is a standalone earthquake policy, which is a separate contract, sometimes from a different insurance company than the one that writes your homeowners policy. Which option is available depends on your company, your location, and your home.

According to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, earthquake coverage can pay for several kinds of costs, depending on the policy:

• Repairs to your house. This is the core of the coverage: fixing structural damage the earthquake caused to the dwelling itself, such as broken walls, damaged framing, or a cracked foundation.
• Debris removal. After a damaging earthquake, simply clearing broken materials away can be expensive, and many earthquake policies include money for that cleanup.
• Extra living expenses. If your home cannot be lived in while it is being repaired or rebuilt, the policy may help pay for temporary housing and the added cost of daily living, such as higher food costs while you stay elsewhere.
• Detached structures and personal property. Depending on the policy, coverage may extend to buildings that are not attached to your home, such as a detached garage, and to your belongings inside the home.

Not every policy includes every one of these pieces, and some include them only with lower limits. When you compare options, ask for a written summary of which of these four areas the quote covers and how much it pays for each.

Understanding the earthquake deductible

The deductible is where most of the confusion, and most of the financial risk, lives. A deductible is the amount of a covered loss you pay yourself before the insurance company starts paying. On a regular homeowners policy, you might be used to a flat dollar deductible such as $1,000 or $2,500. Earthquake coverage almost always works differently.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance explains that the deductible for earthquake insurance is usually 10 to 20 percent of the coverage limit. Its own example makes the point clearly: if your home is insured for $200,000, a 10 percent deductible would be $20,000. At a 20 percent deductible, that same home would carry a $40,000 deductible. The department also warns that there may be separate deductibles for your home, your belongings, and outside structures such as detached garages and fences, so a single earthquake could trigger more than one deductible.

Missouri’s data shows the same pattern. The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance report on residential earthquake coverage notes that policyholders are often required to cover a significant share of a loss themselves through higher deductibles and separate deductibles for the structure and its contents, and that some insurers will only sell policies with a deductible equal to 20 or 25 percent of policy limits. On the encouraging side, the same report found that 85 percent of the market now offers deductibles below 10 percent of the property’s value.

What Missouri’s numbers show about coverage today

The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance tracks earthquake coverage every year, and the trend is worth knowing before you decide. Its most recent residential earthquake coverage report found the following:

• Coverage in the highest-risk counties has dropped sharply. In the seven-county New Madrid region (Butler, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Scott, and Stoddard counties), the share of residences with earthquake coverage fell from 18.3 percent in 2015 to 10.4 percent in 2024. An earlier department report showed that in 2000, more than 60 percent of homes in the New Madrid area had earthquake coverage.
• Most of the state has low coverage. In 101 of Missouri’s 115 counties (the report counts the City of St. Louis as a county), fewer than 20 percent of residences have earthquake coverage, and no county had 50 percent or more of its residences covered.
• Other high-risk areas are declining too. In the other high-risk counties outside the New Madrid region, coverage fell from 51.7 percent in 2015 to 32.9 percent in 2024. Statewide, it fell from 30.6 percent to 19.4 percent over the same period.
• Prices have climbed. After adjusting for inflation, the report found that the cost of earthquake coverage in the New Madrid counties has increased 42 percent since 2015.

There is some good news for shoppers. In a February 17, 2026 release, the department reported that its 2025 survey of insurers showed availability improving. The share of insurers writing new earthquake policies in Missouri rose from 32 percent in 2024 to 37 percent in 2025. Among companies actively writing earthquake coverage, the share that do not offer it in the New Madrid area dropped from 19 percent to 14 percent. Three insurers that were not writing earthquake coverage anywhere in Missouri in 2024 reported offering new policies in 2025, while only one insurer reported leaving the market.

Missouri also has a few long-standing rules on the books. A 1992 law, section 379.975 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, required insurers beginning in 1993 to give applicants and policyholders with property in the New Madrid Seismic Zone information about the availability of earthquake insurance. A companion section, 379.978, requires every insurance company that covers property in Missouri for earthquake loss to prepare and keep a written disaster plan for handling earthquake claims.

What Tennessee homeowners should know

Tennessee does not publish the same county-by-county coverage report that Missouri does, but the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has repeatedly urged residents to review their earthquake protection, especially during February, which the state recognizes as Earthquake Awareness Month. In a 2019 release, the department noted that the state had more than 50 licensed companies selling earthquake insurance. That same release cited an estimate from the Mid-America Earthquake Center at the University of Illinois that a magnitude 7.7 earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Zone would damage 265,000 buildings and cause $69 billion in economic loss in Tennessee.

West Tennessee, including Memphis and the communities along the Mississippi River, sits closest to the New Madrid Seismic Zone. East Tennessee has its own seismic zone. Middle Tennessee homeowners are farther from both, but the department’s message applies statewide: earthquake damage is not part of a standard homeowners policy, and the only way to be protected is to add it. The department notes that earthquake insurance is available from licensed insurance agents in Tennessee and encourages consumers to check with their agent about how the deductible on their earthquake coverage would work.

If you are buying a home in Tennessee right now, it is worth asking about earthquake coverage at the same time you shop for the homeowners policy. Our guide to finding home insurance when buying a house in Tennessee explains how to line up coverage before closing, and our article on what to expect from a Tennessee home insurance inspection covers what insurers look at once the policy starts.

Renters, condominium owners, and landlords

Earthquake gaps are not limited to people who own a single-family home. The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance notes that standard renters policies do not cover earthquake damage either. If you rent, your landlord’s insurance protects the building, not your furniture, clothing, electronics, or the cost of living somewhere else if your apartment becomes unlivable. Some insurance companies offer an earthquake endorsement for renters policies that covers belongings and extra living expenses.

Condominium owners should check two things: whether the condominium association’s master policy includes earthquake coverage for the building, and whether their own unit-owner policy can add earthquake coverage for the interior of the unit and their belongings. If the association’s policy does not cover earthquake, owners can sometimes be billed a share of repair costs after a major event.

Landlords who own rental homes in either state face the same exclusion on dwelling policies, which are the policies designed for homes you rent out rather than live in. Our overview of landlord insurance costs and coverages in Tennessee discusses earthquake in the context of West Tennessee rentals, and our Missouri landlord insurance page covers rental property protection on the Missouri side.

Your car is a different story

Auto insurance works differently. Most personal auto policies list earthquake among the causes of damage paid under comprehensive coverage, which is the part of an auto policy that covers damage from events other than a crash, such as falling objects, hail, theft, and fire. If you carry only liability coverage, which pays for damage you cause to others, your own car would not be protected. Check the comprehensive section of your auto policy to confirm.

How to decide whether earthquake coverage is worth it

There is no single right answer, and nobody can predict when the next damaging earthquake will happen. As the Missouri department’s director put it in its 2026 release, insurance is not about predicting when or if an earthquake will happen; it is about being prepared when it does. These questions can help you decide:

1. Where exactly is your home? A home in the Bootheel, the St. Louis area, or West Tennessee carries a different level of risk than a home in western Missouri or Middle Tennessee. Your agent can tell you which pricing area your address falls in.
2. How was your home built? The age of the home, whether it has a brick or stone exterior, how it is attached to its foundation, and whether it has a basement or crawl space can all affect both the price of coverage and how the home would hold up during shaking.
3. Could you pay the deductible? Multiply your dwelling coverage amount by the deductible percentage. If the result is more than you could pay, ask for quotes at a lower percentage and compare the price difference.
4. How much equity and savings are at stake? If a severe earthquake destroyed your home, could you keep paying the mortgage while also paying to rebuild or rent somewhere else? If the answer is no, the coverage deserves a serious look.
5. Do you have a mortgage lender requirement? Most lenders require homeowners insurance but usually do not require earthquake coverage. That means the decision is typically yours alone, which is exactly why it is easy to overlook.

It also helps to review your earthquake decision at the same time you review the rest of your coverage. Many families bundle their home and auto insurance with one company to save money, and that renewal conversation is a natural time to ask about an earthquake endorsement. See our guides to bundling home and auto insurance in Missouri and Tennessee.

Practical steps you can take this month

Start by finding your homeowners policy declarations page, which is the summary page at the front of your policy that lists your coverages, limits, and deductibles. Look for any line mentioning earthquake. If you do not see one, assume you do not have the coverage. Next, read the section of your policy titled exclusions and look for the words earth movement so you understand exactly what is left out.

Then gather the details an agent will need to quote earthquake coverage: your address, the year your home was built, its square footage, its exterior construction, and its foundation type. Ask for at least two deductible options so you can see how the price and your out-of-pocket risk change together. Finally, take a few simple safety steps that reduce damage regardless of insurance, such as securing a water heater to the wall, anchoring tall furniture, and practicing the drop, cover, and hold on routine the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance recommends: drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy desk or table, and hold on until the shaking stops.

If you have questions about a Missouri policy, the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance consumer hotline is 800-726-7390. You can also read more about protecting your home in our main Missouri homeowners insurance guide and our Tennessee homeowners insurance guide. Homeowners in Texas can read our separate article on whether earthquakes are covered by home insurance in Texas.

How Freedom Insurance Group can help

Freedom Insurance Group is an independent agency, which means we work with many insurance companies rather than just one. That matters for earthquake coverage, because availability, deductible choices, and prices vary widely from company to company, especially near the New Madrid Seismic Zone. We can review your current homeowners, renters, condominium, or landlord policy, tell you plainly whether earthquake damage is covered today, and quote options with different deductibles so you can choose the balance of price and protection that fits your family.

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