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.