AAI: Quake Test Shows Insurance Pool Not Needed.

A simulated earthquake rattled a fully furnished test house in California, but the test yielded a surprising result: The structure sustained little damage. That is evidence that loss-prevention efforts by property/casualty insurers nationwide and stricter building code enforcement are making homes safer and that there may be no need for a proposed federal insurance fund, said the Alliance of American Insurers, an industry trade association.

Conducted by California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREe), the test was the culmination of five months of testing on the two-story wood-frame house. An earthquake simulator, or "shake table," duplicated the shaking recorded by a motion seismograph in the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles. CUREe researchers had expected this "ultimate jolt" to severely damage the house.

The congressional bill opposed by the alliance, the Homeowners' Insurance Availability Act (H.R. 21), would require the U.S. government to offer federal reinsurance contracts to state insurance programs and other purchasers to cover residential losses in a natural disaster.

According to the alliance, the test provided evidence that property insurers nationwide may be better prepared to meet their obligation in a large-scale disaster without the new government insurance fund.

The test was performed before an audience of journalists and more than 1,200 viewers on CUREe's Web site. Cameras inside and outside the house recorded the damage. They showed severe side-to-side movements. Tables, shelves, drawers, paintings, unanchored bookcases and water heaters all tumbled around violently. But the structure suffered only some cracks.