Pilotpip

Did any of you feel the earthquake this morning in the midwest? Here in Indy the tower at IND was evacuated, and there was some minor damage. My mom decided she had to call me from STL and ask if I felt it. Pretty wild. We don't have these things very often here although we're along a relatively active fault. I can remember maybe two or three in my life and none of them shook this hard.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...5?OpenDocument

stinsonjr

Felt a small tremor when visiting relatives south of St. Louis in the late 70's. Even though it was small it certainly got my attention.

Wait until the New Madrid Fault lets go again. I have read that if a quake happens in the 7 range on that fault (the one in 1811 was in the 8.3+ range) that Memphis will simply be devasted. St. Louis will be heavily damaged, and that my house in KC will have a strong chance of suffering foundation damage.

Serious question: Does FDX have a contigency plan in place if the New Madrid Fault goes off? I would imagine they do, but Memphis is the closest city to the suspected epicenter - can flying/sorting be transfered to Indianapolis or other hub location? Does FDX do all their maintainance in Memphis? Have wondered this for a while, just curious to see what plans FedEx has for this possible event.

Pilotpip

FDX and UPS would both be in trouble if it went. Consider that IND and SDF are both within a hundred miles. There was a quake along the New Madrid fault that reversed and eventually changed the flow of the Mississippi back in the early 1800s. It is considered one of the most powerful quakes in US history. If one like this were to happen again it would be catastrophic.

Every time we've had a little tremor in the STL area and every time a big one hits California there's a media blitz for about two days about how inadequate our building codes are in regards to earthquakes. Most of the buildings in the St. Louis area are old brick homes and only one bridge has been retrofitted with any sort of preventative measures. The article I cited says the reason we feel a 5.2 so much more than California is the difference in soil composition here. We're due for a big one here. I remember some quack back when I was in grade school predicting one. Schools were practicing earthquake drills (think duck and cover) and stockpiling food and water supplies. After a couple months, it stopped and the food stores were forgotten about.

stinsonjr

If you go into the boot-heel, around Puxico, MO, you can see what looks like Marsh land - my understanding is that this area flooded when the Mississippi reversed course and the water never left.

The big one will happen there, and it will be significant. You have to believe that FedEx and UPS have made plans.

Cubdriver

Kansas isn't that far from the epicenter and we slept like a rock.

stinsonjr

If there were an 8.3 in the Missouri Boot-heel, you would feel it in Wichita - an 8.3 at that location would probably rattle Wichita almost as much as todays 5.2 rattled St. Louis. When the 1811 earthquake happened along the New Madrid Fault, church bells in Maine rang according to reports. It would be a big deal.

groovinaviator

I was woken up by it last night because a bunch of stuff fell out of my medicine cabinet. There was an aftershock this morning around 1015 and all the stuff fell out again... you would think I had learned my lesson.

Pilotpip

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/...08/us2008qza6/

More neat stuff.

Groovin, I think somebody is telling you to lay off the drugs. I mean, come on, supersonic tampicos?

CFIcare

I woke up to the sound of everything on my night table rattling, a low rumbling noise and my apartment creaking.

I remember groggily thinking, "Huh. Earthquake. At least it's not my phone going off with an ASAP trip."

Back to sleep. I slept through the sequel.

Zach

CFIcare, thats a funny name.