wfgodot
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New Madrid quake disaster was exactly 200 years ago
1969 caused quite a panic:Today brings a reminder of the potential doom. At 3:45 a.m. on Feb. 7, 1812, exactly 200 years ago, the last of the three great New Madrid quakes was unleashed. Accounts say the ground rose and fell like sea waves; black sands erupted from boils. The Mississippi flowed backward. The rumbling tolled church bells half a continent away in Charleston, S.C.
New Madrid itself, a rank frontier town, was demolished and abandoned for some time by inhabitants.
The quakes rank as three of the most powerful to ever shake the lower 48 and by far the largest east of the Rocky Mountains. The history lesson is always followed with a near scientific assurance that its bound to happen again.
So why dont people in New Madrid get nervous? At least act a little like they dont want to be served up on a tectonic plate?
Are we still getting - and needing - reminders?Simple, said the proprietor of Dubs Barber Shop.
Were just all used to it, I guess, said Dub Prince, who has been cutting hair in New Madrid nearly 50 years. And besides, we dont think the big ones going to happen in our lifetime.
Then he proceeded to tell about the time in 1969 when the barbershop shook so hard, everybody ran out in the street. Windows broke and bricks fell off the building.
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Bill French, at the New Madrid Historical Museum, puts it this way: This town has lived with the earthquake scare for 200 years. Most people dont even think about it.
Apparently, they leave that for the rest of the world. In past weeks, people have come from all over the planet to New Madrid, population 3,500, in the southeast corner of the state.
more, with links, at Kansas City Star link aboveFrench breaks out the visitor register and flips through the latter pages.
Look at this, he says, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Qatar, Israel all of them coming here to this little town. I guess they want to see the place before the next earthquake hits.
So thats a sure thing?
Well, he said, referring to geologists, thats what the boys down in Memphis say.
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