By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
It’s been almost 200 years since earthquakes in late 1811 and early 1812 along the New Madrid fault destroyed the Missouri settlement by the same name, drained lakes and created others, made the Mississippi River run backwards for a short time near Memphis, rang church bells in Boston and shook the president’s bed in Washington.
Experts say the damage from the next big quake in that seismic zone will be much worse than 200 years ago because of the increase in population.
When will the next big one hit is not known, but Ronnie Walls of Beebe, an agent for Centennial Insurance in Conway, said Tuesday that he has sold a lot of earthquake policies since last fall, when the small earthquakes started in Guy.
But he said, “Since the 4.7, that business really kicked up.”
The 4.7-magnitude quake at Greenbrier on Sunday came at about 11 p.m. and was reportedly felt for hundreds of miles, as far away as Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee.
Walls, who lives in Beebe’s Fetcher Addition and has not purchased earthquake coverage for his home, said he didn’t feel the earthquake, but his wife heard it. She was listening for tornadoes and thought at first that she was hearing one because it sounded like a train, Walls said.
Naomi Wallis, who lives outside Beebe, said she was also listening for tornadoes when she felt her living room floor shaking and she knew immediately that it was an earthquake.
Online research shows that some people believe there is a connection between the kill-off of drum in the Arkansas River in late December, the dead blackbirds in Beebe on New Year’s Eve and the seismic activity around Guy and Greenbrier over the past several months. And some say it can’t be just by chance that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking requests for information from suppliers of cotton blankets and meals ready to eat to see how fast they can supply those items to a population of 7 million earthquake survivors.
FEMA posted these RFIs on Jan. 20:
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency procures and stores pre-packaged commercial meals to support readiness capability for immediate distribution to disaster survivors routinely.
“The purpose of this Request for Information is to identify sources of supply for meals in support of disaster relief efforts based on a catastrophic disaster event within the New Madrid Fault System for a survivor population of 7M to be utilized for the sustainment of life during a 10-day period of operations.
“FEMA procures and stores blankets to support readiness capability for immediate distribution to disaster survivors routinely. The purpose of this Request for Information is to identify sources of supply for blankets in support of disaster relief efforts based on a catastrophic disaster event within the New Madrid Fault System for a survivor population of 7M to be utilized for the sustainment of life during a 10-day period of operations. FEMA is considering the following specifications (14M blankets per day).”
Mary Olson, a FEMA spokeman, said Tuesday that the RFIs are part of FEMA’s 2011 National Level Exercise, set for May, to prepare and coordinate a multi-jurisdictional response to a national catastrophic event – an earthquake in the New Madric Seismic Zone.
According to information from the FEMA website, the exercise, called NLE 2011, is a Tier I National Level Exercise, which are conducted annually to prepare for catastrophic crises ranging from terrorism to natural disasters. NLE 2011 will be the first NLE to simulate a natural hazard.
Where will the exercise be held?
The website says, “NLE 2011 activities will take place at command posts, emergency operation centers and other locations to include federal facilities in the Washington D.C. area and federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector facilities in the eight member states of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC).
“The eight member states of CUSEC encompass four different FEMA regions: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee (FEMA Region IV); Illinois and Indiana (FEMA Region V); Arkansas (FEMA Region VI); and Missouri (FEMA Region VII).”
The website says the exercise is designed to validate these capabilities:
Communications
Critical resource logistics and distribution
Mass care (sheltering, feeding and related services)
Medical surge
Citizen evacuation and shelter-in-place
Emergency public information and warning
Emergency operations center (EOC) management
Long term recovery
In a press release dated Dec. 16, 2010, FEMA encouraged everyone to “Resolve to be Ready” in 2011 for earthquakes and other natural disasters by taking these steps:
Get an emergency supply kit;
Make a family communications plan;
Stay informed of the risks in your community;
Check for hazards in the home;
Identify safe places indoors and outdoors; and
Educate yourself and family members.
Walls said earthquake coverage is not included on standard home insurance polices but can usually be added for about $80 to $100 on a $150,000 home. The drawback to earthquake coverage, he said, is that the deductible is usually about 10 percent of the value of the home. So, on a $150,000 home. The deductible would be about $15,000.
