Government warns of "catastrophic" U.S. quake

Government warns of "catastrophic" U.S. quake

Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:42pm ESTBy Carey Gillam
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - People in a vast seismic zone in the southern and midwestern United States would face catastrophic damage if a major earthquake struck there and should ensure that builders keep that risk in mind, a government report said on Thursday

(visit the link for the full news article)

Why would Government make this statement today?
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said if earthquakes strike in what geologists define as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, they would cause "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States."
FEMA predicted a large earthquake would cause "widespread and catastrophic physical damage" across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee -- home to some 44 million people.
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.
Transportation systems and hospitals would be wrecked, and police and fire departments impaired, the study said.
The zone, named for the town of New Madrid in Missouri's southeast corner, is subject to frequent mild earthquakes.
Experts have long tried to predict the likelihood of a major quake like those that struck in 1811 and 1812. These shifted the course of the Mississippi River and rang church bells on the East Coast but caused few deaths amid a sparse population.
"People who live in these areas and the people who build in these areas certainly need to take into better account that at some time there is ... expected to be a catastrophic earthquake in that area, and they'd better be prepared for it," said FEMA spokesperson Mary Margaret Walker.



(visit the link for the full news article)

web bot prediction if i remeber right said west coast earthquake would happen in dec? if i remeber correctly

they probably just released the statement in order to use the argument "we told you so, we tried to help" than lift their shoulders to shrug and smile

I think you forgot to post a link in your OP..

It does make you wonder though, why would FEMA say this now? I wasn't aware they were in the earthquake-predicting business.

Could be a "heads up" message. I would say that it is better to send this type of message in a manner that is not so direct as to cause chaos and panic.

What else could they say that would keep the birds chirping and flowers growing in the onset of some major disaster?


They could say nothing at all and then what? "Why didnt you warn us?"!!!


Cheers!!!!

Originally posted by Alexander_Supertramp
I think you forgot to post a link in your OP..

It does make you wonder though, why would FEMA say this now? I wasn't aware they were in the earthquake-predicting business.

FEMA is in alot more "buisness" than most think.



Cheers!!!!

reply to post by RFBurns


I could be wrong, but I thought we don't have any technology that can predict earthquakes?

Seems to me like FEMA might be fear-mongering.

[edit on 20-11-2008 by Alexander_Supertramp]

Actually there is a technology thats been around for some time, sismic sensors which are placed near known fault areas detect motion deep within the ground, are very sensitive and can pick up sounds and movement within a fault.

These sensors are hooked up to graph instruments and are constantly monitored. With the recorded sismic graphs from previous quake readings, they can more or less predict if one is going to occur based on the previous records and what they are reading now.

Its not perfect and they cannot say exactly when a quake will hit, but it is a way to detect them.


Cheers!!!!

Here is the link
www.reuters.com...

I first found it tonight on Drudgereport.com
sorry

Initial thoughts are of the Hayward Fault, not too sure why so many states are listed there tho'

Jim Berkland on C2C tonight said his window is between dec 11th-18th and is predicting it for the west coast.

He is the guy who predicted the world series quake amongst others.

Maybe they know about Project Bluebeam. H.A.A.R.P. up in Alaska is supposedly capable of causing earthquakes 10K (6.21 miles) underground anywhere in the world. Unfortunately I am not bright enough to post the youtube video about this. I do however monitor earthquake reports and if you check it out you will see a lot of quakes exactly at this depth. Not that I am totally convinced of this yet.

just for yucks,when you have time to read for a while,google--- "fema,executive orders"
it's some juicy reading that will let you know that you belong to fema,lock stock, and barrel. if there's an emergency,you own nothing. not even your children! enjoy the read

Uh Oh

The time monks have Dec 9-15th circled on the calendar for a 2 quakes in So. America and another one on the west coast of North America and now the US gov is warning of one.

Uh oh

Also found this from the FEMA
Site itself. Here is the link to the article:
www.fema.gov...

Kind of makes you wonder, does'nt it?

reply to post by paxnatus


It makes ME wonder! I live in W. Kentucky. I've already felt two small tremors this year.

Serious question here, was November national Earthquake awareness month or something? First we heard about that massive Earthquake preparedness exercise in California last week, then I saw a ton of talk about having a home emergency kit available in case of an Earthquake, and then today my company gave us a one hour "refresher" class on emergency procedures for our building, stressing earthquake preparedness, making sure everyone has a 48 hour survival kit at their desk, and asking us to make sure we don't have anything over our heads that could crush us if it fell in our workspaces. I heard tell that it was actually our building's management that pressed for all the tenants to give this refresher to their employees.

It struck me as odd because in 3 years of living and working in Seattle I've never recieved more than the one quick 5 minutes standard procedure meeting my first week in the office. Obviously Seattle is bound to have another quake someday, as is California, but why is this such a hot topic suddenly?

You know.....I live in Central kentucky. I would hear these deep rumbling sounds something similar to deep background thunder, but no clouds in the sky. some days I hear alot of these rumblings and some days none at all, I wander if there is a connection. Some days I'd be working outside and hear these rumblings and I would say to my brother "hear that, sounds like thunder" he looks at me like I'm crazy.

Originally posted by tiso_us
You know.....I live in Central kentucky. I would hear these deep rumbling sounds something similar to deep background thunder, but no clouds in the sky. some days I hear alot of these rumblings and some days none at all, I wander if there is a connection. Some days I'd be working outside and hear these rumblings and I would say to my brother "hear that, sounds like thunder" he looks at me like I'm crazy.

That's your belly, if you lived in New Orleans it would be louder

reply to post by Bejing


ARRR can you pls give the link so i can take a look thanks
Sorry i missed your link in the other post thanks

[edit on 21-11-2008 by duffster]