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Earthquake emergency test

Friday, May 20, 2011
BY JARED JERNAGAN Assistant Editor
Amateur radio operator George Edenfield searches for a signal during an emergency exercise at the Putnam County Emergency Operations Center. The multi-state training exercise, which ran from Monday through Thursday, simulates a 7.7 magnitude earthquake at the New Madrid Fault in Missouri, followed closely by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone. Local problems simulated by the exercise included overwhelming casualties coming to the Putnam County Hospital and a major explosion at the Putnam County Courthouse. Amateur radio operators would be relied upon in such a case because it is point-to-point communication, requiring no infrastructure such as cell phone towers or telephone lines.

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  • Wow. I am first astonished we are taking the time to do this in Putnam County, and second very, very pleased. Someone in the emergency ops center has their head on square and is making a great call in having these emergency tests for earthquakes. Modern research is beginning to point towards the Wabash Valley seismic zone as more likely to produce the next big mid-continental quakes that compare the the M8-9 quakes of the New Madrid back in 1811-1812. The question is not if, but when.

    -- Posted by anonymous101 on Fri, May 20, 2011, at 12:39 PM

  • The Putnam County RACES will be putting on a demonstration for the public of a national disaster drill at the EOC starting at 2pm June 25th until the afternoon of June 26th. Feel free to visit and see what it is about. We will have a station to operate if you are not a ham and would like to see what it is about. If you need more info please email me at jazzemt@yahoo.com

    -- Posted by Jazzemt on Wed, Jun 1, 2011, at 7:17 AM
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