Wisconsin To Join Midwestern Earthquake Drill Next Year

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Posted: 1:18 AM Mar 17, 2010 Wisconsin To Join Midwestern Earthquake Drill Next Year Wisconsin will join a massive Midwestern earthquake readiness drill next year. Reporter: Associated Press

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MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin will join a massive Midwestern earthquake readiness drill next year.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been working with states in the New Madrid Seismic Zone on an earthquake response plan. The zone runs from west of Memphis, Tenn., into southern Illinois.

FEMA officials said a massive earthquake in the zone could cause widespread damage because the earth's crust in the central and eastern United States transmits shaking further and more efficiently than out west.

FEMA has been working on tabletop exercises with the eight NMSZ states, which include Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee, to prepare for the big one.

Wisconsin emergency officials said the effort will culminate next May with a full-scale exercise involving those states and surrounding states, including Wisconsin.

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