By Rachel Lippmann, KWMU
St. Louis – First responders and government officials were at Washington University Tuesday morning learning how to prepare for a rare but potentially devastating natural disaster - earthquakes.
A major quake along the New Madrid fault could cost Missouri $40 billion
Seminar sponsors say an earthquake along the New Madrid or Wabash Valley faults is inevitable. But they say proper preparation will keep economic and physical damage down.
Washington University engineering professor Phillip Gould says those in charge of developing earthquake plans should pay attention to buildings that went up before earthquake-proofing was included in building codes.
Research shows the state is doing a good job getting bridges in the Saint Louis area ready for an earthquake.
But bridges to the west of the metro area have yet to be retrofitted, says Tom Blair. He is a district engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation.
"Potentially, if we have that big 1811 earthquake again, we could see some damage to those bridges," he says. "So we have those on our list, we will try to get to them, prioritize retrofitting them, along with the fact that a real urgent issue for us in the state of Missouri is the state of our bridges irregardless of earthquakes."
Blair says the pressure on the state's road fund caused by drops in gasoline consumption will make it more difficult to complete those retrofits