Earthquake

[RiverAux]

Here is a link to a 1973 documentary about the 1971 San Fernando Valley earthquake in California.  It is about 27 minutes long and has a lot of news footage as well as some reenactments.  At about 21 minutes in there is some footage and mention of CAP members -- you see them pulling up in jeeps with yellow lights flashing while wearing orange or red hardhats. 

http://www.archive.org/details/Earthqua1973

[Rob Sherlin]

  Wow! That's one thing I do not miss about living there. The last one I went through was the "Northridge Quake" (I think it was 94), and I was in the shower getting ready for work. I had a parrot (Patagonian Conure) at the time who flew into the bathroom from her perch about 30 seconds before it hit (I let her flight wings grow in, but she never has done that before). Then things started "Rockin and Rollin", the lights went out, and all I could think about is, "My God, I'm going to end up falling through the floor, butt naked, to the apartment below me!
   I didn't realize how big it was until I heard overpasses collapsed and people were driving off of them, and it was definetly not just a minor quake. My apartment had major cracks in the walls afterwards, I had no water or electricity.....Not fun at all!!!!!

  Don't know why, but they always seem to happen early morning hours!

[wuzafuzz]

I didn't mind them so much.  Then again, I never experienced major damage at my house.  Northridge was quite the ride though. 

[Ned]

I was a cadet in the LA area at the time.  It was quite memorable. 

I learned an important lesson: Never install bookshelves directly over your bed.

I awoke to an impressive paperback shower.  I am grateful I did not buy many hardbacks back then. 



CAWG was deeply involved in the recovery.  As a cadet I only had a very small part -
I spent a week in my fatigues "guarding" a destroyed shopping mall somewhere in San Fernando Valley.  Every couple of hours a senior would drive by and give us food and water.  I can't remember where we slept.

But I did get out of school no questions asked.  That's all any cadet can really ask for.

Wow.  That was almost 40 years ago.  I'm getting old.

[cap235629]

CAP is in the response plan for Arkansas' Eathquake response. (we have a very large fault line here)

the word "earthquake" is treated by all involved (Ar Dept. of Emerg. Mgmnt., State Police, National Guard etc) similar to the word "Voldemort" in Harry Potter

It is the big elephant in the corner.

But it's nice to know we have an invitation to the party! 

[Rob Sherlin]

 Well, welcome to the "Shake, Rattle and Roll" club....Didn't know there was a fault line in Arkansas....Then again, I found there's a big fault line through New York...Everyone thinks they're safe or doesn't know about it because it's remained dormant for ages........Just means it's going to be a "Doozie" when it does shift!!!!

  Definitely a situation where hardhats or helmets would come in handy for SAR (from another post)

[sardak]

...Didn't know there was a fault line in Arkansas

From the US Geological Survey
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1811-1812.php
1811, December 16 - Northeast Arkansas Magnitude ~7.2 - 8.1

The first and second earthquakes occurred in Arkansas (December 16, 1811) and the third and fourth in Missouri...another strong earthquake in Arkansas on December 16.

On the basis of the large area of damage, the widespread area of perceptibility , and the complex physiographic changes that occurred, the Mississippi River valley earthquakes of 1811-1812 rank as some of the largest in the United States since its settlement by Europeans. The area of strong shaking associated with these shocks is two to three times larger than that of the 1964 Alaska earthquake and 10 times larger than that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The area is now known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the big target on this USGS map from "2008 United States Seismic Hazards Maps."  Seismic risk goes from white/low to red/high. Note the patch of orange in New York.


Scenarios at our GTE last year were based on earthquakes and the USAF told us to expect similar for our SAREVAL this year.

Mike

[Rob Sherlin]

  OK!...You're in a danger zone! It's a good thing you know this (there's probably a lot of people there who don't. A lot of people where I lived in California were clueless when I talked about we were in a region dealing with the "ring of fire" (look it up). The thing is....If you know something can happen, then it probably will (whether it be in your lifetime or not), and it's best to be prepared for it (best [darn] moto I've ever learned (from the Boy Scouts...."BE PREPARED!!")).
   I'm sure everyone agrees that the weather (nature) is getting more frequent and radical whether your dealing with earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or whatever. We have no control over that, but we can still be prepared.
   I think people are so caught up in the "hussle and bussle" with every day things, they don't really prepare for an "extreme event of nature".
   

    If we're not prepared ourselves, how can we expect to take care of others?

Food
Water
Shelter...(main things)
What else are you prepared for?

[Eclipse]

The New Madrid's potential is slowly floating to the top in most risk assessments for the lower Midwest, even to the point where the AAR from the recent KY mission referred to it as the "New Madrid Ice Quake".

Every once in a while we get a little rumble to let people know its there, but for the most part people in IL, outside the ES community, are clueless (and worried more about tornadoes and flooding than earthquakes).

I got to feel one while in Vegas a few years ago - weirdest thing.  Since the building (Bally's) was on seismic floats it didn't rumble so much as sway.  I happened to be in the area between the elevator core and one wing, and you could see the joints in the building shifting (as designed) several inches back and forth. 

[SarDragon]

I "attended" the Loma Prieta quake in '89. Not fun. No real damage in my area (Sunnyvale), but a major inconvenience for several weeks.

[ColonelJack]

A few years ago (can't recall exactly when), we had a minor quake in the northern and western Georgia area.  I happened to be in the hospital at the time, recovering from surgery, when -- in that area between being awake and being asleep one can only experience at 5 a.m. -- I actually felt the hospital bed swaying slightly.  My first thought was, "Earthquake," but then I said to myself, "No way, dude.   You live in Georgia."  So I drifted back off to sleep.

An hour later when the nurse came in to check my vitals, I woke up, turned on the television, and there -- on the morning show on the station for which I anchor the nightly news -- the hosts were discussing the seismic event (earthquake) of just over an hour before.

Wow.

Jack

[RedFox24]

I am the Illinois ARES rep to the New Madrid Fault Zone EmComms Working Group.  We had a meeting in Feb at Realfoot Lake, Tn..  If the New Mardid goes like some predict it will some day, we are no where near ready.  Then again if it goes off half way we are still not ready.

One of the more scary things was that if it goes at the "wrong" time of the year, like winter, places like Chicago will be in big trouble.  Seems the majority of the Nat Gas pipelines and other infrastructure that serves cities like that, Indy, Detroit, St Louis goes through this area.  Go get ready Eclipse.........

Link to a group that we are working with on the NMFZEC group:  http://www.cusec.org/

73