WHEN WILL THE BIG ONE STRIKE? OFFICIALS WORK TO INCREASE EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS

The worst time for the next major earthquake to hit the Cape Girardeau area would be during a normal working day.

An earthquake of a magnitude of 7.0 or greater could conceivably do immense damage to the older, downtown area of Cape Girardeau as well as some of the older schools and churches.

Most wood frame homes are going to withstand the initial shock of a major earthquake better than brick buildings.

Perhaps the worst place to be when the earthquake hits would be the old Mississippi River bridge.

"It probably would not fair very well," David Pfeiffer, area coordinator of the SAVE Coalition, said. "If there is any heave at all I would suspect it would dump it into the river. There's a good chance that it would be, and some of the other bridges around here would suffer a lot of damage." The SAVE Coalition is a group of engineers, architects and building officials from around the state who do disaster evaluation and rapid response.

"It hasn't been maintained very well because they're talking about building a new one," he added. "The old river bridge was not seismically designed so there's a good chance that it would take heavy damage."

Buildings like the KFVS-12 building and the Marquette Hotel, both on Broadway, may fair better than expected.

"The KFVS building was seismically designed," Pfeiffer said of the tallest building in Cape Girardeau. "It will do better than others. It'll probably take a lot of swaying action but supposedly it's designed for that."

Despite the rough exterior of the Marquette, its frame is formidable.

"It would probably do all right surprisingly," Pfeiffer said. "It is a very massive concrete structure.

"But all that fancy stuff on the top would be down in the street."

An earthquake of a magnitude between 7.6 and 8.0 originating from the southern point of the New Madrid Fault would damage Cape Girardeau to a point between major and complete destruction, said Dave Hitt, director of Cape Girardeau County Emergency Management.

"It doesn't sound good but it's certainly better than being in Memphis, Tenn.," Hitt said. "Memphis is expected to be completely destroyed."

Hitt and some other members of the emergency management team have participated in scenarios designed to illustrate the devastation of this kind of natural disaster.

"They were talking about schools, how many schools they estimated would be flattened, on top of kids if it happened on a school day," he said.

There are too many factors to allow engineers to state specifically which buildings will fall.

"It's really hard to say because none of these buildings have experienced an earthquake," Pfeiffer said. "You say a 7.0 earthquake but a lot of it has to do with the direction it's coming from. At what angle is it going to impinge upon various buildings? If a church gets hit from the side it's probably going to take a lot of damage because it doesn't have a lot of strength in that direction."

Most of the initial injuries from an earthquake will come from falling objects, and drinking water will be in short supply. Hitt said the shifting of the ground will probably sheer the pipes leading to wells making it impossible to draw water. The water plant in Cape Girardeau might be rendered useless as well.

"If it is a major earthquake and the water pipes are ruptured you won't have water to fight fires with," he said. "The way most people see it, if a building catches on fire, that water is going to need to be saved for drinking water."

Charlotte Craig, director of the Cape Girardeau County Health Department, said they will work to reduce the spread of disease.

"What we do on the front side is work with the agencies that are in charge of the shelters and assist them in being sure that the facilities are adequate," Craig said. "One of the things that will occur is food spoilage. Proper methods of preparation will be an issue if there isn't any hot water around or if there isn't any heat.

"We'd like to be sure that adult immunizations are up to speed because in an earthquake when you have buildings and glass and debris everywhere, dirty puncture wounds will be an issue."

Did the floods of 1993 and 1995 prepare the residents of this area for future natural disasters?

"My personal opinion is no," Hitt said. "They may be more prepared for future floods but as far as an earthquake or a tornado I don't think the floods, while they are major disasters, have prepared Cape Girardeau County for other types of potential disasters."