Are you ready for an earthquake?
It's a question most of us don't think about everyday. But St. Louis is well-known for being in the New Madrid seismic zone, an area that saw a significant earthquake 110 years ago.
What would happen if the big one hit again -- and how would we respond? The region is part of a new survey. Praveen Edara is the chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Missouri, which conducted the survey. Edara said the survey is mostly about planning and response.
"We're looking at structures prone to fail during an earthquake, particularly roadway infrastructure such as bridges," he explained. "And then the survey will inform us in building a traffic simulation model for assessing evacuation. So once we know the extent of trips going to different destinations, what routes people would prefer to take, and so forth."
Edara said questions in the survey will ask about if people would choose to evacuate or not, what potential destinations could be, and how people will get there.
Hear more from Praveen Edara on how his department's study is looking into earthquake preparedness:
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