When the earth opens beneath a building in southern Missouri, the property owner often is out of luck.
The bedrock in southern Missouri is porous and water moving through it sometimes eats it away, sometimes causing a hole to open up on the surface. Sinkholes give little warning and property owners who become victims of nature are unlikely to have insurance against those incidents because few companies offer coverage.
Senator Jay Wasson of Nixa is back for a third time trying to require property insurance companies to offer sinkhole coverage. Wasson’s bill does not require homeowners to buy sinkhole insurance. But he says they should have the same kind of options people have for flood or earthquake insurance.