Yeah...the 1700 earthquake was really, really bad.
I'm hoping this doesn't ripple all the way to the New Madrid. Talk about an area totally unprepared to handle an earthquake as strong as what's hit it in the past...
I was thinking about New Madrid, too. If a quake the magnitude of Japan's hit, it would be bye-bye St. Louis, Little Rock, Paducah KY, and there would likely be damage as far away as Chicago.
Nothing short of catastrophic.
Yeah...some of the suburbs in these areas may have better construction in certain places (some of these communities did at least start to pay attention to seismic bracing and things like that in the early 2000s), but the older construction will be demolished if the New Madrid ever goes off that badly again. I read a very scary book once that described the horror that could take place if ever Memphis and St. Louis had a serious earthquake. It would be absolute, apocalyptic devastation and I am not exaggerating.
There is a nuclear plant near I live. Being a fireman I was given basic Nuclear Emergency Response training and later took more advanced training as it was offered. I am one of 4 people in the tri-county area authorized to enter the containment structure to perform man-down rescues. The plant has it's own team but they have to have a backup team in place... that's us.
On top of that I also took the Media Relations training when it was offered. They trained us to answer any questions that the media might ask and more importantly direct people to sources of information.
Then I have a father and two uncles who have worked in the nuclear industry... and they were Nuclear Navy before that... my mother worked at this plant as Health-Physics lab-worker until she had us kids.
...This kind of stuff is/was topical conversation around our table. I may not be a nuclear-engineer or even work there but I have learned enough over the last decade and a half to help alleviate some of the mystery and fear about these power plants.
Thank you very much for all of this. It's very good to have some word from a professional with some knowledge in this area.
the issue with communication within some part os japan is some cell towers were damaged and everything is jammed.
though messages have better chance of getting through then voice.
This is a very important thing for people to remember in case of a disaster, severe weather, etc.: a text message requires far less bandwidth and is more likely to get through than a voice call. These days, everyone--even those who do not like texting otherwise--should know and be able to text in case of emergency.
Now I am NOT sure of this, but has anyone heard anything about an 8.4 aftershock, or did I mishear something?
Mom, dad and little sis talked to her over Skype. Dad just put up a screen cap from it and she's smiling in it and they obviously have power so that's great. Really relieved right now.
