Government Warns Of 'Catastrophic' US Quake
US: November 24, 2008
KANSAS CITY - 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.
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.
(Editing by Andrew Stern and Xavier Briand)
Story by Carey Gillam
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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