Well we most certainly do not have extra houses, but if our house were to fall down, we'd get whatever we could wrangle from our homeowners insurance, then we'd probably have to try to take out an additional loan or borrow from family to rebuild. Most of the property value here is in the land, not the house built on it, so I *think* we'd be able to manage to rebuild. Worst case, we sell the land, rent an apartment for awhile until we clear the balance of our mortgage, then buy a new house. My guess is that if the "big one" does hit, there will probably be some emergency assistance funds available to help out as well. As I understand it from real estate and insurance agents out here, only the richest folks with lots of expendable income get the insurance. Must folks either can't afford it at all or are in the middle like us and have decided they'd rather have the money and the risk than the insurance.