EARTHQUAKE TOWN MEETINGS HELD IN THE NEW MADRID SEISMIC ZONE

HORTON, S.P., PATTERSON, G., and JOHNSTON, J. S., Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, WILKINSON, J., Central United States Earthquake Consortium, Memphis, TN, shorton@memphis.edu.

Earthquake Town Meetings were held in Blytheville, Arkansas and Dyersburg, Tennessee to address public concern following four widely felt events (magnitudes between 3.6 and 4.1) occurring during a period of about four months from 2005/02/10 to 2005/06/20. The Town Meetings provided a forum to share information about the New Madrid seismic zone, emergency management, recent earthquakes, and general earthquake preparedness with the public. The meeting format was a 30-minute presentation followed by a 45-minute question and answer period with a panel of earthquake experts. The experts represented the state Division of Geology, the state and local Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as, CERI and CUSEC. The Town Meetings were well attended, and judging from survey returns, effective at addressing public concerns. We plan to continue holding Earthquake Town Meetings in affected areas following future significant earthquakes. To effectively address the wide range of public concerns regarding earthquakes requires representation of federal, state and local agencies, as well as, the scientific community. Cooperation between CERI and CUSEC from the initial stage in organizing these Earthquake Town Meetings helped promote this broad representation. We anticipate this protocol can be effectively expanded to other areas of the country and to larger earthquakes requiring even broader representation.