WASHINGTON   –  “The 7.0 earthquake that has devastated the nation of Haiti is a shock to the American consciousness, and it holds special significance for our region of Missouri which is very close to, if not inside, the New Madrid Seismic Zone. 

Haiti’s problems are different from the ones Missouri would face, obviously, but at least as dramatic.  When the death toll is final, more than 200,000 people may be counted as having lost their lives in the earthquake.  Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and this disaster could not have beset a nation more poorly-equipped to handle the challenges of response and recovery.

Thankfully, the people of Missouri and the rest of the world have opened their hearts to Haitians.  U.S. troops, relief workers, and international aid organizations are working tirelessly, around the clock, to prevent more lives from being lost in a nation left without even a functioning government in the midst of a cataclysmic crisis.

As would be the case following a major earthquake here in Missouri, the U.S. Geological Service has provided immediate support with realtime maps of the affected region.  Their topographic assessment of the situation on the ground in Haiti enables first responders, aid workers, and relief efforts to identify stable and unstable areas of the country.  Armed with that information, they can route supplies to people in life-and-death situations as quickly as possible.

Finally, non-profit efforts for relief, donation drives all over our state, and the prayers of all of us in Missouri have gone out to the Haitian people.  The heartbreak, the devastation, the death and destruction in Haiti are so great and so terrible, the rebuilding and recovery process will take decades, if not lifetimes. 

Here in Missouri, we can’t help but have the New Madrid Seismic Zone in the backs of our minds when we read the news about Haiti. 

We know the constant concern of having a major fault line in our own backyard, and we also understand the enormous task of being prepared for a once-in-two-centuries seismic event.  The last quakes to strike us in Missouri were so strong, they rang church bells in Boston and the Mississippi River ran in reverse.  That was more than a century and a half before interstate bridges, intercoastal energy pipelines, dams, hospitals, population centers and billions of dollars of infrastructure dotted the landscape here at home.  Today, all of those things would be in jeopardy should a severe quake strike us in Missouri.

All the more reason that, as we reach deep to help the people of Haiti, we should also be thinking about ourselves.  At the federal level, I’ve taken on the task of elevating preparedness in the New Madrid Seismic Zone to the status of national priority.  We are having some success, and major preparedness exercises will take place in the New Madrid Seismic Zone over the next several years.  In the meantime, we must be cognizant of the damage a major earthquake can do – and work our hardest to help the people of Haiti in the middle of a tragedy to which no end is in sight.”