in Memphis, StL, Evansville, Paducah...?

I'm researching the New Madrid-Wabash seismic zone for my upcoming novel and am curious about some things:

1) are you aware you're in earthquake country? Would you be shocked if an earthquake hit this afternoon?

2) do you have an earthquake kit? (what's in it?) A family emergency plan?

3) do you live or work or go to church or school in a brick building?

Thanks for sharing. I've already emailed my relatives back there (it's where I grew up) and gotten some responses (they know/have no plan at all except for the "crazy" uncle who may not be crazy in this case) but am interested in hearing more.

Thanks,G! Not much you can say to a 2-year old, but then, they aren't ever far from you, so that's good. But you could do "duck, cover, hold" drills--get under the dining room table, tuck your head, grab a table leg. It'd be hard to get across, "but this is different than our tornado drill."

The thing is, you live in Japan or SF or LA, you get quakes all the time, and people are mentally prepared there, have the kits, etc. Construction gets "hardened" (this means everything iffy has already fallen down and what's left is pretty solid). There are international zoning recommendations for seismic zones which Tenn. has adopted, but Mo. and Ill. have not, which is...well, I'd call it "criminally irresponsible," but I'm given to Big Statements. There have been higher numbers of "shake out" drills there--fire, police, hospitals, and schools drill for when it happens, which is good. You could look at this list of USGS articles.

If you want an idea of what could happen there with a moderate quake, go look at videos of the 6.3 in Christchurch...and they were better prepared, zoned, and retrofitted than St.L is. Those brick buildings are gorgeous...but not where you want to be in a quake.

There's also a pdf out there of which of your bridges will fall in a 7.0 quake...and the short version is, almost all of them (or their approaches will, rendering them useless). All train bridges, gone. Runways aren't build right for quakes there. Rails will get bent. Interstate overpasses, gone. The rivers will be clogged (or change course drastically). Getting food and water and doctors into the area is going to be a challenge.

On the other hand, St.L. is far enough from the center that you guys won't get it the worst. Paduch, Evansville, Memphis, Cape Girardeau: lots of places will get it much worse. And if your house is close to bedrock (as opposed to on tens of meters of sand), you should be fine.

Based on what I'm hearing back from relatives, they really aren't prepared either, so you aren't alone in that.

No, snick, no dramatic changes. Just a quake (or two)--which is bad enough!

Gretad08 said:

A lot of public buildings in this area are block. Not sure if that makes a difference with safety or not. What type of construction have you found in your research to be the best fit for a zone like this?

Click to expand...

Best: concrete reinforced with rebar, lots of rebar, and not very tall However, it's hard to make that look pretty.

I worked in a 4-story brick building in San Fran and was there in 1989. They'd spent a few million (they had it, no strain there) on retrofitting and it came through like a champ. But unreinforced brick and block, not good at all. Just google image it--christchurch 2011 quake, for instance.

Thanks, BSB--yeah, you look paranoid right up until the day it happens, then you look like a genius or seer. And it will happen, probably sometime this century. One does tend to notice a brand new lake popping up overnight--not surprised the awe over that has remained to some degree until your childhood.

I love the 1811-12 quakes for their wacky effects there--sand blows, new lakes, the smells, the reported noises, that it did damage all the way to Montreal. Scary and cool all at once.

Thanks for the answers and for being honest if you aren't prepped with the kit/plan yet. From here and my relatives, I'm getting, yes, awareness but no, not much prep is the standard.

The usgs also has a good how to prepare brochure here, specific to the NMSZ/WVSZ of the central u.s.. It'll be awful when it happens, though as I research more I'm getting less worried about a big one being soon--probably not for 2-400 years. On the other hand, that 6.3 in Christchurch shows what a moderate quake can do, and it's not pretty. You guys are well overdue for one of those.

My sister who worked in schools told me that in 1990 that wacky man who predicted a New Madrid quake on a specific date did at least get all the schools into preparing that year, and they made up emergency kits...which then everyone promptly forgot about until ten years later when bad food started stinking or drew a colony of insects. I found this more amusing than I probably should have.

Snick, if you want to read more about effects and don't want to wade through the crazed conspiracy theory sites (what do those people have against FEMA?), start here and link to all those pdfs. A bridge damage report pdf, which refers to a 7.7 quake, is here. For people in the StL area, some geology here explains that if you're up on rock/a bluff, you're in good shape. River bottoms, not so much--more shaking plus liquefaction.

Orianna, it's interesting to me that, once a person has lived in coastal California (or probably Japan), s/he likely does the emergency kit anyway. People laughed at me in Oregon when I bolted all bookcases, china cabinet, etc. to the wall, but you pick all that crap up once (as I did in SF in 1989), and you learn. Now there's also this stuff called earthquake gel, less than ten bucks for a good amount, and you can stick down all the ceramic and glass geegaws to their shelves, too.

Thanks