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All 32 schools in the Hazelwood School District will participate in the “Great Central U.S. ShakeOut.” On April 28 at 10:15 a.m., people in 10 states will participate in earthquake drills. The ShakeOut was created by the Central United States Earthquake Consortium and several other key organizations to raise awareness of the “Drop, Cover and Hold On” method of protection during an earthquake and as a preparedness activity to allow whole communities to take part. Hazelwood was one of the first area school districts to agree to take part in the program.
The earthquake that affected Haiti last January and the quakes in New Zealand and Japan this year remind people in the Midwest, including here in St. Louis, that they live near fault lines, too.
District schools have been instructed to follow normal drill procedures during the ShakeOut, said Audrey Cherry-Bates, director of school safety. In addition, posters and DVDs containing a 12-minute training program were distributed as resources for each school’s safety team to use as training materials.
“The overall reason we participate in drills is to simulate what to do in an actual event,” she said. “Everyone needs to know what to do when an earthquake strikes.”
The St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross will highlight McNair Elementary School during the ShakeOut. Red Cross members will conduct and film a short school assembly for students about earthquake safety at 9:30 a.m. Students will report back to their classrooms before the big drill.
People should follow a multi-step program to minimize the damage caused when the ground suddenly moves. First, people should identify and correct hazards in their homes. Second, they should create a disaster-preparedness plan. Other steps include creating disaster supply kits, identifying and fixing your home’s structural weaknesses. During the quake, people should practice Drop, Cover and Hold On and those inside should remain indoors while those outside should stay outside. Afterward, check for injuries and damage and continue to follow your disaster plan in the days and weeks after an earthquake.
The Missouri State Emergency Management Agency reminds everyone to spread the word.
“It is important that we have students participate in school-based drills frequently, but I think this drill will help spread the word to the community and it helps everyone get involved,” said Cherry-Bates.
To date, at least 1.5 million people have registered to participate in the event. The ShakeOut is an opportunity for communities to prepare together before another damaging earthquake strikes this region.
The United States Geological Survey, USGS reports that in late 1811 and early 1812, a series of four high-magnitude earthquakes occurred on the New Madrid Fault, which runs in a north-northeast to south-southwest line from roughly Cairo, Ill. to Marked Tree, Ark. Large aftershocks from this series happened in 1843 and in 1895 and were felt as far away as Washington, D.C. and Boston, Mass. A related fault line, the Wabash Valley Fault, on the Illinois-Indiana border, erupted with a 5.5–magnitude quake in 1968 and a 5.2-magnitude quake and an accompanying aftershock just three years ago. Quakes on both of these fault lines were felt over wide areas of the Midwest and Southeast. The USGS further explains that the area shaken by these temblors was two to three times larger (felt over hundreds of thousands of square miles) than either the parts of Alaska shaken by the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake in 1964 or sections of the West Coast during the 7.9-magnitude San Francisco Earthquake in 1906.

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