State agencies in Missouri prepare for earthquake catastrophe
MISSOURI (KBSI) – What if the ground started shaking while you were inside Busch Stadium or attending a high school football game , what would you do?
That question was top of mind at a recent simulation in Missouri.
Jeff Briggs is the Program Manager with the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.
He and 500 others attended the three-day real-life simulation that featured safety drills, blocking off the streets of St. Louis.
“They simulated what would happen if it happened during a cardinal’s game and they even had a nearby railroad car accident and a chemical spill that contaminated the people in the stadium, so they pretended there were evacuations and decontaminations,” said Briggs. “They even simulated if the earthquake damaged bridges over the Mississippi River. So they even built a temporary bridge to get people across the river.”
The Missouri National Guard and Michigan National Guard participated in the simulation. Lots of state agencies joined in to see how to react if disaster was to strike on the New Madrid Fault line.
Briggs says this simulation does not mean that a catastrophe will happen any time soon but based off estimates we should still be prepared.
“And those estimates are estimated to be a 25-40% chance in the next 50 years,” he said. “Something magnitude 7 or larger which is a huge earthquake, similar to what we’ve seen 100 years ago. An estimate of a 7-10% chance of something like that happening in the next 50 years.”
Scott Gauvin is the Illinois Earthquake Program Manager. He shares what we could see in the event of a big earthquake.
“Gas lines coming into homes, there’s going to be power and telecommunications and potential for those critical services that we rely on everyday may not be there and may be disrupted for a bit,” said Gauvin.
Liquefaction, flooding and buildings collapsing could also be a possibility according to experts.
Both Gauvin and Briggs want people to know an earthquake is a natural disaster that comes with no warning.
Unlike with a tornado, there is no way to tell when an earthquake will hit.
Briggs says we have earthquakes very often, every day actually. They are just too small to feel them.
He says to make sure things in your home are firmly mounted and shares what you should during an earthquake. That is Drop, Cover, and Hold, On.
Missouri and all of the states that surrounding the New Madrid Seismic Zone participate in the Great Central U.S. Shake Out earthquake drill every year
