"Tennessee is likely to be hardest hit, according to the study that sought to gauge the impact of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in order to guide the government's response.
In Tennessee alone, it forecast hundreds of collapsed bridges, tens of thousands of severely damaged buildings and a half a million households without water."
That's from a Reuters story today, relaying a warning from FEMA about the inevitable massive earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. You can read the full article here.
We get these dire warnings about once a decade, and everybody worries for a couple of days. Then we go back to not worrying. It's a little like the way people in New Orleans used to talk about the Big One before it actually arrived.
*USGS comparison of damage-range for similar earthquakes along the New Madrid and San Andreas faults from Wikipedia.
5 comments:
Do I need to saddle up my horse and grab some whiskey?
Good to know FEMA is right on the job.
Yes, Bozo, I know I feel perfectly safe with FEMA looking out for me. By the way, can Dave borrow one of your horses?
Good ol' FEMA -- I used to live in L.A., where we got a pretty good shaking periodically, and now I live in Atlanta. I'll take my chances here, thank you...the most important prep? Know where your gas-line shutoff valve is, and keep a crescent wrench nearby to shut it off; keep a pair of athletic shoes in your car's trunk in case you have to walk home from somewhere. You'll probably be fine.
The voice of experience! Thank you. I always have hiking boots in the car, so that's covered. Now I have to go find the gas valve ...
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