Disaster planning discussion reveals gaps in preparation for major earthquake

Preparations for a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault fall far short of what would be needed to cope with such a disaster, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said Thursday.

As Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, left a conference room where local, state and federal officials discussed plans to meet a catastrophe, she said that some things she heard weren't encouraging.

Emerson convened the meeting to begin plans for an earthquake preparedness exercise. She and U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., called for such a test of emergency response after the fumbling response to Hurricane Katrina.

One item particularly worried Emerson. There is no centralized inventory of critical assets that must be protected for use after a quake, she said.

When she heard that in the meeting, she said, "I was speechless."

The New Madrid fault runs from northeast Arkansas through the Missouri Bootheel into Southern Illinois. A series of major quakes along that line in 1811 and 1812 devastated the small settlements in the area. Moderately damaging quakes occurred on five occasions since, one about every 30 years. Five small quakes were recorded during the last week in the fault zone.

The meeting Thursday at the University Center in Cape Girardeau brought together officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the State Emergency Management Agency, the Missouri Department of Transportation and local emergency directors.

Drew Juden, director of Public Safety in Sikeston, said earthquake planning has languished for the past decade. If a really big quake hits, he said, residents of the region could be cut off from most outside help for days.

Learning lessons from the response to Hurricane Katrina is imperative, he said.

"We saw the disaster within a disaster with Katrina, and we don't want to be a part of that."

Exercise in the works

An earthquake preparedness exercise was already in the works when Emerson and Talent made their call for such a drill. But the scope of the drill was aimed at hazardous materials that could be released by an earthquake.

A more extensive drill would test plans developed by local, state and federal governments for all aspects of an emergency, said Jim Wilkinson, executive director of the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium.

The beginning of such an exercise would be a thorough review of agency plans, he said. The plans would be tested by triggering a mock earthquake without advance notice.

The drill would condense activities that would take place over several weeks into a three- to four-day period, he said. "Citizens may not even be aware it is going on."

One of the lessons from Katrina is the need to provide early help to local emergency agencies so they can do their job, said Bob Bissell of the FEMA office in Kansas City. Bissell said he spent weeks in Mississippi, where agencies were left without vehicles, radios or fuel.

"We should start building scenarios around those events," Bissell said. "If you can't get gasoline, you are out of business."

A major preparedness drill is designed to point out those kinds of deficiencies, said Jeff Glenn of Talent's office. "The most important thing we will gain from an exercise is what we don't know."