Fort Leonard Wood is expected to serve as a staging area if a major earthquake ever strikes the New Madrid fault with the force of its last quake two centuries ago, and the post’s chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers is sponsoring a conference later this year on how to respond in case of a disaster that would likely wipe out St. Louis and much of the state’s population center.
Dave Kingston, programs chairman for the chapter, told chapter members during their Wednesday morning meeting that the two-day conference should have U.S. Rep. Joanne Emerson as its keynote speaker. Other major speakers will include Maj. Gen. King Sidwell, the adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard, and Ron Reynolds, head of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency. Representatives of the Red Cross and the 7th Civil Support Team will offer training seminars on disaster response.
The conference will address how Missouri and adjoining states would cope with a major disaster. The last New Madrid earthquake hit in Missouri’s pioneer days and rang church bells hundreds of miles away, but the area was lightly populated at the time and most buildings were single-story log or sod homes. A similar quake today would destroy major cities, disrupt Mississippi River navigation, and likely rupture major underground pipelines.
Following a general introduction to the seismology of the area on the first day, conference participants will divide into two tracks. One of those tracks, Kingston said, will address the role of SEMA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and consider building assessments.
SAME member Dave Neeley said he’d like to see many area engineers volunteer for training to do damage assessments of buildings.
“We want to provide a base of these assessors,” Neeley said. “If we had enough structural engineers, we wouldn’t need these structural assessors. But the idea is to give you enough tools that you can go in and make some initial assessments, basically doing “go” or “no-go” type of assessments.
Kingston said earthquakes overseas have attracted considerable attention but the potential for a Missouri disaster hasn’t.
“It’s kind of interesting to see that we have such a serious fault situation potentially here,” Kingston said.