If a meteor hits your home, who pays?
Feb 19, 2013, 8:11 AM | Updated: Mar 4, 2016, 5:53 am
After a meteor struck western Siberia and more meteors threatened the entire globe last week, CNNMoney asked the question: Who pays for damage to a home if hit by a space object?
Rest easy, “your insurance covers falling objects,” said Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute. In the rare events when meteors have crashed through home owners’ roofs over the years, insurers have paid the damage for those insured, Hartwig said.
“Blue ice” – the frozen sewage that sometimes falls from airplanes – is more common and is also covered if it falls from the sky onto your home, Hartwig told CNNMoney.
A remnant of a meteor struck in the Urals region of western Siberia injuring more than 700 people and damaging nearly 300 buildings. It was referred to as a “once-in-a-century” event.
“The earth is pelted with 40 tons of space debris a year,” said Laurie Leshin, a former NASA scientist. “Most of that is in teeny dust particles” and rarely does it injure people or damage property.
