Does insurance pay for Oklahoma earthquake foundation damage?

Reviewed by Preston, Oklahoma foundation repair consultant · Updated 2026-10-14

In short: Oklahoma earthquake insurance claims have historically had a low payment rate; in 2014 about 100 claims were filed and eight were paid. The state Insurance Department responded with a 2015 bulletin telling insurers to inspect homes before coverage if they plan to deny claims as pre-existing damage. The bulletin also notes the common exclusion of masonry veneer walls and chimneys from earthquake coverage.

How active are earthquakes in Oklahoma?

In a 2008 summary, an Oklahoma Geological Survey geologist described four main seismic areas in the state: El Reno-Mustang, central Oklahoma, Love and Carter counties, and the Arkoma Basin ². Typical magnitudes were 1.8 to 2.5, with focal depths generally under 3 miles ². The same summary listed earthquakes alongside expansive soils, karst and landslides as Oklahoma's main geologic hazards, and noted that over 75% of the state has bedrock that can produce expansive soils ².

That last point matters for claims: in most of Oklahoma, cracks in a house can come from swelling and shrinking clay as well as from shaking ². For the later rise in earthquakes linked to wastewater injection, see induced seismicity in Oklahoma. For how to tell the two causes apart, see seismic damage vs soil movement.

What did Oklahoma's larger earthquakes actually damage?

Prague, November 2011

The magnitude 5.6 earthquake of November 2011, centered in Lincoln County about 45 miles east of Oklahoma City, buckled several roads including Highway 62, and chimneys collapsed through the roofs of some homes ¹⁰. In nearby Shawnee, all four turrets on a 1915 university building were destroyed ⁹.

Pawnee, September 2016

The magnitude 5.8 Pawnee earthquake of September 3, 2016, is the strongest in Oklahoma's recorded history, and it injured one person ⁷. Emergency managers reported no building collapses; much of the damage was to older brick and stone buildings from the early 1900s, and stones fell from the facade of a 1902 sandstone bank building downtown ⁸.

Researchers also found sand blows, surface fractures and lateral spreading, which are signs of liquefaction: water-soaked sand losing strength and flowing like a liquid during shaking ⁷. This was unusual for an Oklahoma earthquake. Their imaging showed that loose, young river-channel deposits of sand, gravel, silt and clay were the soils prone to it ⁷. Homes on river-bottom soils are discussed in soft soil consolidation in alluvium and wet clays.

Cushing, November 2016

The magnitude 5.0 Cushing earthquake started only about 4 km (2.5 miles) deep ⁶. Nearby instruments recorded peak horizontal ground accelerations of 0.44 g to 0.58 g, meaning the ground briefly accelerated at roughly half the force of gravity ⁶. Century-old unreinforced brick buildings downtown were heavily damaged and some were demolished ⁶. A study of newer low-rise buildings in town noted they sat on shallow concrete foundations (grade beams, bell footings and piers) and reported out-of-plumb walls and cracked masonry, but did not report foundation damage ⁶.

What did the 2015 Insurance Department bulletin say?

In March 2015 the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner issued Earthquake Insurance Bulletin No. PC 2015-02 ¹. Its main points:

How often have Oklahoma earthquake claims been paid?

Separate earthquake coverage also became more common: about 10 to 15 percent of Oklahomans had it in 2016, up from about 2 percent in 2011, according to the Insurance Department ⁵. Deductibles are typically 5 to 10 percent of the home's value, so damage from smaller quakes often falls below the deductible ⁴⁵.

In April 2021 the Oklahoma Insurance Department announced a $25 million settlement with one insurer over roughly 1,000 earthquake claims that had been denied or not properly paid; the claims were to be reopened and re-evaluated by an independent administrator ³.

How have Oklahoma courts treated "earth movement" exclusions?

An earth movement exclusion is policy wording that removes coverage for damage caused by the ground shifting, settling or heaving. Oklahoma cases show the outcome can turn on exact policy wording and the cause of the movement:

• 2009, Edmond home (federal appeals court): A burst bathroom pipe soaked the clay under part of a slab, the clay swelled and the slab heaved. The insurer paid for interior water damage but not the foundation. The Tenth Circuit held "earth movement" was not ambiguous and the exclusion barred the foundation claim ¹¹.
• 2019, school property (Oklahoma Supreme Court): Damage followed a burst underground water pipe. The court found the earth movement and water exclusions ambiguous because they listed natural events but not man-made ones and lacked "however caused" wording ¹².
• 2021, wastewater injection (Oklahoma Supreme Court): In coverage for lawsuits claiming injection wells caused quake damage, the court held the earth movement exclusion in the earlier policies unambiguously barred coverage, since its list covered nearly every event associated with an earthquake ¹³.

Lawsuits against well operators have also been filed. In 2022 one disposal well operator, which denied a role in the quakes, agreed to an $850,000 settlement with a class of residents covering damage from quakes within 50 miles of Pawnee from 2014 to 2016 ¹⁴.

Because a pipe-caused heave and soil-caused settlement can be treated differently, the documented cause of movement matters; see leak-induced localized heave.

What does this mean for foundation-related claims?

Pre-loss condition is central

Because insurers are expected to know a home's condition before coverage starts, records of that condition carry weight in a claim ¹. Useful records include dated photos of brick, drywall and slab cracks, and an elevation survey showing how level the floors were.

Masonry and chimneys

Brick veneer and chimneys are often excluded from earthquake coverage ¹. Brick veneer is the single layer of brick tied to the outside of a wood-framed wall. Damage to it, such as stair-step brick cracks or a chimney separating or leaning, may fall outside an earthquake policy even when shaking caused it ¹.

Separating shaking from soil movement

Since expansive soils are widespread in Oklahoma ², adjusters and engineers often have to decide whether cracking came from an earthquake or from clay movement. Signs that point toward ongoing soil movement, such as cracks that open and close seasonally, are covered in earthquake shaking damage and the guide on seismic damage vs soil movement.

General insurance rules

See insurance claims for how homeowners coverage and exclusions are handled in Oklahoma.

Related

• Induced seismicity in Oklahoma
• Seismic damage vs soil movement
• Earthquake shaking damage
• Insurance claims
• Elevation surveys