Two earthquakes that shook Marlboro County during a four-day period last week have residents in the area looking to protect their homes with earthquake insurance.

“I went out and bought a policy the next morning,” said Tonya Jackson, who lives in Bennettsville and owns two rental properties in the county.

Jackson said she called her insurance company at 9:30 a.m. Monday, about eight hours after a quake that registered 3.7 on the Richter scale rattled the Blenheim area.

Jackson said the agency called her back 30 minutes later with a quote and she purchased the insurance.

“It costs less than a $100 (a year) and with (these quakes) so close together, you never know,” she said.

The other recent quake, which registered 3.5 on the Richter scale, struck close to Bennettsville at about 4:45 a.m. Sept. 22.

That quake “made the whole house shake” and startled Tica Burris, who lives between Blenheim and Bennettsville.

Burris also said the quake made her wonder if her homeowners’ policy included earthquake insurance.

“When we had two earthquakes in four days, that is scary,” she said.

Burris said she checked with her insurance company and found she did not have earthquake coverage. She said she wasn’t able to get a quote for the cost of earthquake coverage immediately because requests for earthquake insurance are rare.

Still, Burris, who lived in California for three and a half years, said she will will follow up on her inquiry.

“In California, we’d have the smaller (quakes) before the bigger one,” she said. “So you want to feel like you’re covered if it hits.”

Lisa Frazier, another

Marlboro County resident, said she found out after the recent quakes that earthquake insurance is not included in most homeowners’ insurance policies, but she plans to get coverage.

“You have too much to lose,” she said.

The fact that most homeowners in the Pee Dee don’t have earthquake insurance is not surprising to Allison Dean Love, executive director of South Carolina Insurance News Service.

“Only between 10 (percent) and 20 percent of homeowners in that area of the state have earthquake (insurance)” she said. “If their homes are damaged (by an earthquake), they have no coverage.”

Love said the percentage of homeowners with earthquake insurance in the Charleston area, which experienced a devastating earthquake in 1886, is as high as 30 percent. Charleston Southern University released data speculating that an earthquake, about twice as strong as those that rocked Marlboro County, is likely to occur in the state during the next couple of decades, she said.

If an earthquake hits, a moratorium on new policies is normal because the risk of claims increases, Love said. That’s the same case as with polices that cover hurricane damage when a hurricane is approaching the area.