# 6119
We are now only 3 days away from The Great Central U.S. Shakeout, scheduled for 10:15am on February 7th, 2012. Last year, in the first central states shakeout drill, more than three million people registered to participate.
This year they hope to improve those numbers.
This exercise will be conducted in the style of The Great California Shakeout which has been been running successfully for a number of years (see Reminder: Great Shakeout On Thursday).
To date, more than 2.2 million individuals, businesses, organizations, and entities have registered to participate in this year’s Shakeout.
To learn how to join in, click on the image below:
And to learn what do during an earthquake, Shakeout.org has a number of short videos at this link.
You don’t have to live near the New Madrid fault, or in California, the Pacific Northwest, or Alaska to be impacted by an earthquake.
While large earthquakes in the eastern half of the country are relatively uncommon, they do happen. Charleston, S.C. was devastated by a 7.3 magnitude quake in 1886.
USGS map
As you can see by the map above, much of the United States is seismically active – with Alaska, Hawaii, the west coast, and the mid-west seeing the most – and strongest, quakes.
Few places, however, can claim to be completely immune to quakes.
Several months ago, during the 2011 National Preparedness Month campaign, I wrote at length about earthquake preparedness (see NPM11: Are You Earthquake Prepared?).
There you’ll find many resources, including the The L. A. County Emergency Survival Guide.
To become better prepared as an individual, family, business owner, or community to deal with all types of disasters, I would invite you to visit the following preparedness sites.
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/
AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/
A few of my preparedness blogs you might wish to revisit include:
In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?
Because no matter where you live, its just a matter of time before the next disaster strikes.
