Midwestern States Near the New Madrid Earthquake Zone Must Prepare Just in Case
At any given moment, residents in the Midwest could become victims of a natural disaster.Agencies in a seven-state region have formed the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), an agency that encourages earthquake awareness. It also works to coordinate multi-state planning for what many to believe to be an inevitability.
According to the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis, The greatest earthquake risk east of the Rocky Mountains is along the New Madrid fault system.
The New Madrid seismic zone consists of several faults "beneath the continental crust in a weak spot known as the Reelfoot Rift." It extends 150 miles southward from Cairo, Illinois through the town of New Madrid, Missouri, into Arkansas, and into Kentucky and Tennessee. It crosses five state lines and crosses the Mississippi River in at least three places.
Importance of Preparedness
CERI's 2009 conference was held in early July in Metropolis, Illinois. It was hosted by the University of Illinois Extension Service in collaboration with Extension Services in Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee.
It was designed for participation by citizens, teachers, elected officials, businesses, ministers, emergency personnel, and first responders.
Topics on the agenda included: readying business, mapping neighborhoods, preparing Red Cross shelters, locating earthquake resource information, how to protect roads, catastrophic planning, and engaging faith-based organizations into the plan.
Planning considers a potential 6.5-magnitude earthquake along the New Madrid Earthquake Zone.
Active history
Earthquakes occur along the fault on a frequent basis, although they are relatively small in number. Between 1974 and 1998, there have been 4,387 events along the fault.
But on Friday, April 18, 2008 at 4:37 a.m. a 5.2-magnitude earthquake centered in the far reaches of southern Illinois shook people out of a sound sleep.
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