"We know we live near a fault line but we never thought this would happen to us," one survivor said as he dealt with the shock of Spain's most deadly earthquake in over 50 years. The deadly magnitude 5.1 earthquake in southern Spain reminds us that many of us in the U.S. live on fault lines yet would be surprised to experience an earthquake of any real magnitude.
The Agence France-Presse quotes another survivor as saying, "People are afraid. No one here has ever seen anything like this before." These same sentiments will no doubt be expressed by millions of Americans at some time in the future as inevitable earthquakes happen in their "home town". Many in the U.S. live on little-known fault lines. One of the potentially most dangerous is the New Madrid Fault that will one day create another catastrophic earthquake in the Central U.S. like the quake recorded in 1812.
What is the lesson? Learn about your earthquake risk and prepare for a devastating earthquake in your neighborhood. Learn what to do in an earthquake to protect yourself and have an earthquake kit in case you have to evacuate or shelter-in-place without the necessary basic services that we all take for granted (electricity, gas, water, sanitation, ready access to food, etc).
Every Life Secure
