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Originally posted by oghamxx
As recently as 10 years ago the 1811/12 quakes were estimated to be a 9.
Originally posted by jadedANDcynical
reply to post by jessieg
You bring up several very good points in your post. You (and anyone else interested in potential i pacts of the NMSZ) may find the documnts on the following page erybinformative, if not down right frightening:
Impact of New Madrid Seismic Zone Earthquakes on the Central USA, Vol. 1 and 2
The information presented in this report has been developed to support the Catastrophic Earthquake Planning Scenario workshops held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Four FEMA Regions (Regions IV, V, VI and VII) were involved in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) scenario workshops. The four FEMA Regions include eight states, namely Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri.
...
The results indicate that Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri are most severely impacted. Illinois and Kentucky are also impacted, though not as severely as the previous three states. Nearly 715,000 buildings are damaged in the eight-state study region. About 42,000 search and rescue personnel working in 1,500 teams are required to respond to the earthquakes. Damage to critical infrastructure (essential facilities, transportation and utility lifelines) is substantial in the 140 impacted counties near the rupture zone, including 3,500 damaged bridges and nearly 425,000 breaks and leaks to both local and interstate pipelines. Approximately 2.6 million households are without power after the earthquake. Nearly 86,000 injuries and fatalities result from damage to infrastructure. Nearly 130 hospitals are damaged and most are located in the impacted counties near the rupture zone. There is extensive damage and substantial travel delays in both Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, thus hampering search and rescue as well as evacuation. Moreover roughly 15 major bridges are unusable. Three days after the earthquake, 7.2 million people are still displaced and 2 million people seek temporary shelter. Direct economic losses for the eight states total nearly $300 billion, while indirect losses may be at least twice this amount.
And that's just from the abstract. The study goes in to quite a bit of detail about what and how the areas would be affrected.
As I said, a frightening read, so you might want to only read this during the day. In comfortable and secure surroundings.
Originally posted by jrod
Earthquakes are hardly predictable. I seriously doubt FEMA expects a big one is imminent in middle America. Yellowstone's caldera blowing, maybe.
What worries me about FEMA and putting people in place for an 'event' is they were already in place in New York on 9/11 because they were supposed to be doing some sort of training exercise that week.