FEMA: New Madrid Preparedness a Priority

If these people are to be believed:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-earthquake-preparedness,0,2597915.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

By CHERYL WITTENAUER
Associated Press Writer

February 24, 2006, 6:59 PM EST


ST. LOUIS -- Preparing for a catastrophic earthquake along the New Madrid
fault is a priority, a FEMA official said Friday before a congressional
field hearing on government readiness to handle natural disasters.

"New Madrid is at the top of the list," Michel Pawlowski, section chief of
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. "It's our primary
objective."

Pawlowski told a congressional committee that FEMA has "significant
concerns" for the potential of a catastrophic earthquake equal in magnitude
to those that struck parts of the Mississippi River Valley in 1811-1812,
and again in 1895. The estimated magnitude of those earthquakes is 7.5 or
8. The probability of a magnitude 6 or larger earthquake is 25 percent to
50 percent over the next 50 years.

Even a magnitude 7 earthquake would destroy more than 60 percent of
buildings in St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn., because most buildings predate
building requirements aimed at resisting the shock, officials estimate.

"A catastrophic earthquake in the central United States along the New
Madrid Seismic Zone could pose unprecedented problems and challenges,"
Pawlowski said.

FEMA officials are worried about how quickly they could enter the affected
area because many roads, bridges, and approaches could not be expected to
withstand a high-magnitude earthquake, he said.

"It will be a monumental challenge," Pawlowski said. "That's why we want as
many partners as possible to address this."

FEMA, which was sharply criticized for its handling of the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, began in earnest in December to prepare for the
possibility of an earthquake along the New Madrid fault. Pawlowski would
not say whether the Katrina criticism had prompted the agency's interest in
the 50-mile-wide New Madrid fault zone, centered near the southeast
Missouri town New Madrid, and which stretches from Alabama to Illinois.

Instead, he pointed to its potential, wide-ranging impact on the nation's
economy, estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.

He said a strong earthquake could disrupt the flow of commodities by
underground pipeline, rail, barge and highway; halt the flow of food
exports, fuel oil and coal outside the region; cripple FedEx's hub in
Memphis, Tenn.; and block routes for emergency services.

Pawlowski said FEMA expects to have a regional response plan in place by
June 2007.

A House subcommittee chaired by Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., and which
oversees FEMA and emergency management, traveled to Los Angeles on Thursday
and St. Louis on Friday to gauge how prepared local, state and federal
governments would be in responding to a natural disaster, and avoid
problems that emerged with Katrina.

Shuster served on a special committee that last week released the findings
of its investigation into the government's response to Katrina. Shuster
said Friday he is leaning toward introducing legislation that would
separate FEMA from the Homeland Security Department. That's in response to
criticisms that FEMA's traditional role of dealing in natural disasters has
gotten lost in Homeland Security's emphasis on fighting terrorism.

"Response was slow and key decisions were made late," Shuster said. "We
can't afford to get it wrong again. Business as usual doesn't work in a
catastrophic disaster."

Missouri emergency management director Ronald Reynolds said most federal
emergency funds have been tied to terrorism and not available for natural
disasters. "That's been changing since Katrina," he said. "It's about
time."

Eugene Schweig of the U.S. Geological Survey testified Friday that the
1800s New Madrid earthquakes and its thousands of aftershocks upended land,
made the river unnavigable, and created landslides in a multistate region.
Such an event today would rupture underground pipelines, burst levees, and
wreak havoc in the Midwest and East.

Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., have asked the
federal government to conduct an emergency response exercise along the
entire New Madrid fault zone to expose how response might be improved in
the event of a devastating earthquake.


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Relevant Pages

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  • Experts split over quake risk
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