While earthquakes can happen anywhere, some areas are much more likely to have a major event.

One of these areas is the New Madrid Seismic zone. Ten states could be affected by an earthquake there. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee. People in the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys need to be especially concerned because their soil conditions will make the damage worse because of a thing called "amplification". Since my family lives in the Ohio River Valley, I am taking this very seriously and I hope everyone else does too. Since most buildings are not built to withstand earthquakes in this area a smaller earthquake will do more damage there than it would in some places so it's vital that people prepare themselves as much as possible.

If you live in one of these states, I really encourage you to sign up to participate in the Great Central US Shakeout event on April 28th. This is a drill to help people prepare for an earthquake and to learn what to do during and after a quake.

http://www.shakeout.org/centralus/

That website links to the FEMA website. FEMA is planning a national level exercise to prepare for a "New Madrid Seismic Zone episode" which shows how seriously they are taking this risk. There are events from May 16th through the 20th. These are available to the general public.

http://www.ready.gov/nle2011

FEMA makes it very clear that removing people from the rubble will be a completely local responsibility for at least 72 hours. It's a safe bet that the initial focus will be on high occupancy buildings. Big cities like St. Louis and Memphis will probably get the lion's share of federal assistance since they will probably have the most casualties. That means that there may be no one else but you and whoever is around you to rescue your family, friends, neighbors, etc. It's a horrible, scary thought but it's the simple truth.

I encourage you to take CPR training, or better yet, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training. I did the CERT training when we lived in Utah and it was very, very good. We learned how to prepare ourselves and our families for the worst, how to safely search for people and safely rescue them from rubble, and how to triage the wounded and how to help the injured, etc. The training teaches you how to work as a team to be as efficient and effective as possible.

Rescuing people is much trickier than it sounds and many people are injured or killed trying to help someone else because they lack proper training. Not only is it empowering to be prepared, your family and your neighbors/coworkers lives may actually depend on it.

Telephone lines will be down. So will electricity. Even if you can manage to call for help, there simply will not be nearly enough to go around in a real emergency. If you compare the number of ambulances and emergency response personnel in your area with the local population, you will get a real sense of the scale of the problem. Also, roads and bridges may be out, making your area inaccessible to outside help.

One of the most important things to remember is that there is a very good chance you and your family will not be together if a quake hits, so you really need to have a plan for meeting up and you need to prepare your children to cope if you are away from them. It's really important also to make sure that your child's school or day care has a plan. Kids may have to stay where they are for some time. Are they prepared for that? Is your work place?

I don't want to scare anyone. I just want to bring this to everyone's attention and encourage everyone to participate. Preparation is the key to surviving any disaster.

Thanks for listening.

I've been reading and watching the seismic events in Arkansas. February has been very active. Experts have suggested that do to the lime stone, it won't take that large of an earthquake. Possibly just a 6 to render Kentucky useless. This area has been very active with 3's. Thanks for doing this thread, this something to take very serious, covers a very large area and major cities.

I write a weekly eGuide for a national disaster resource company and we just covered this event.

You are right, preparedness and just knowing the what to do any the different circumstances that can arise makes all the difference.

MK, have you watched Gasland? Very good docu on gas fracking. Since Cheney turned down the water protection bill, this is very serious.

People can light their faucet water on fire, and their well water is unsafe.

I strongly urge everyone to watch Gasland. Very well done, and an eye opener. The young guy who made his film, was nominated for an oscar in the docu field. Yes, I'm a tree hugger. Our streams and water effect everyone, on a daily basis!

Symp … I have not seen Gasland, and it sounds very disturbing! I'm almost afraid to watch. LOL

It is disturbing, maybe you shouldn't watch. lol With all the natural gas fracking that started just 10 years ago, it was a real eye opener to me.

I was so unaware.

Y'all on the West coast don't even want to hear about the one that's going to effect extreme northern california straight up to alberta….

Are you talking about the Cascadia fault off shore? Holy cow, that's really scary, especially now that we've all seen what tsunamis can do.

I hope everyone on this board who lives on the Western Seaboard is prepared for the inevitable.

Actually I'm referring to the Juan de Fuca plate but the Cascadia Fault divides the JdF and North American plates…..it's way north of us in the bay, unfortunately, the northern most tip of the San Andreas fault is up in that nick of the woods and could have a widespread effect…not a pretty picture.

I know I sound like a loser and a wimp but to be completely honest, I just wish I would be one of the first to go if a horrible disaster like this destroyed everything. Maybe if I knew people wouldn't be looting and killing for water and gasoline, I would be willing to make more of an effort to survive. Interesting that the Japanese have been very disciplined and fair when distributing supplies and helping out their neighbors. I think I read somewhere that there isn't even a word in their language comparable to "looting" because their culture just doesn't behave that way. Hope it continues to be civilized like that as time passes. I know too many people that just stockpile guns and ammo instead of water and food which tells me that they are only interested on taking control thru violence. I don't want to live in that world. I wouldn't do a hari- kari bit but for me, I just hope I am gone in an instant, no pain or fear, just poof!

Monkette and I both want to get handguns (after learning proper shooting and maintenance etc) not so much to go on a crime spree (lol) as for self defense. We live in a very rough area and if something major happens there's no doubt in my mind that it would be thug central around here.