Area Students Participate in Midwest Earthquake Drill
Posted
Joe Boals-jboals@timesuniononline.com
Area students joined others across the Midwest this morning for the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut earthquake drill. The drill started three years ago to raise awareness of the risk of earthquakes in the region due to the New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones. “We are always attentive to school safety issues,” said Greg Schroeder, Warsaw Community Schools director of buildings and grounds. “It’s a drill that’s well publicized by the state of Indiana, and they make it pretty simple to participate. The drill is entirely voluntary. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to do the basic ‘stop, drop and cover’ drill, which is essentially what we do.” At 10:15 a.m. today, students were alerted by intercom to take cover for two minutes to practice the safety procedures to take during an earthquake. Many may think Indiana is immune to earthquakes, but according to the United States Geological Survey website, the state sees earthquakes in the 4.0 to 5.0 magnitude every 30 to 40 years. However rare earthquakes may be, there is no way to predict them and they occur with no warning, unlike Indiana’s more common threat of tornadoes. Indiana also has suffered from damage caused by earthquakes originating in neighboring states, according to the USGS. The worst occurred Nov. 9, 1968, and centered near Dale, Ill., in the southern portion of the state. The shock, a magnitude 5.3, was felt over 580,000 square miles and 23 states, including all of Indiana. The drill was not mandatory but all Warsaw schools were invited to participate, said Schroeder.
