Depending on one's belief in either omens or coincidences, it appears that every time I sit down to write another blog installment for ProtectingAmerica.org, I am interrupted by reports of another earthquake.

    On April 18, I attended the annual commemoration of the great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake on San Francisco's Market Street at 5:00 a.m.  As I returned to my room at the Palace Hotel across the street to type a blog report, I received frantic phone messages that the New Salem, Illinois earthquake had struck, and news organizations in Chicago wanted to know what I thought of the event.

    My first call, however, was to our friend Ed Collins, National Director of ProtectingAmerica.org, who has been one of the leaders in helping our founders James Lee Witt and James Loy to build the private/public partnership that they coveted when they founded the organization.

    Ed, who lives just outside Chicago, had not felt the temblor.  But he had felt the aftermath: a lot of frightened and nervous friends and business associates who had.

    Then, on May 12, as I wrote a report on the National Earthquake Conference in Seattle, I was interrupted with news of the devastating earthquake in China.

     Now, a week or so after returning from a marvelous town hall meeting sponsored by University of Las Vegas, Nevada’s Howard Hughes College of Engineering and the Institute for Security Studies, reports are streaming in about a cluster of earthquakes near Reno, in the northern part of the state.

     In an approximately 24 hour period, June 7-8, four small earthquakes measuring 3.0 to 3.9 were felt in Northern Nevada.   It was part of a continuous cluster of tremors that began February 28 near Wells, Nevada.  The strongest in the cluster was a magnitude 4.7 that struck on April 25 and had residents of Reno wondering just how long, and how severe, this unstable period was going to be.  Each new incident has residents wondering: Is this one is going to be the big one?  Statements like "I thought the house was going to come down" follow each new event.

    Those of us in California who have survived much more powerful temblors -- the 6.8 Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, and the even more devastating 6.7 Northridge Earthquake of 1994 -- might wonder how such relatively small temblors could so unnerve our neighbors to the east.

    The answer is "soil."  Nevada is a desert, and the softest, most pliable soil is sand.  In the many town hall meetings I have attended for ProtectingAmerica.org, I often refer to Barney Rubble -- yes, Barney Rubble -- as the first great geologist when he said "Bedrock is the place to be."  Bedrock dampens seismic waves; soft soil amplifies them.  And sand is the softest soil we know of.   But sand is not strictly a desert phenomenon; a topographic map of the city of San Francisco shows that over 80% of San Francisco's ground surface is comprised of either sand or land fill.

    This is precisely why the USGS considers the Midwest -- those areas along the Mississippi River Valley and the New Madrid Fault System -- as the most seismically vulnerable in the U.S.  Given the size of the 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes -- four temblors close to or greater than the 1906 San Andreas event --plus the soft Midwestern soil which amplified the New Madrid temblors and the almost non-existent seismic requirements in the region's modern building codes -- the urgency of the mission continues to grow.

                           THE LAS VEGAS FORUM ON EARTQUAKE PREPAREDNESS

        On May 28, 2008, I arrived in Las Vegas to prepare for a town hall meeting sponsored by UNLV's Howard Hughes College of Engineering and the Institute for Security Studies.   That night, I got a chance to meet, after months of preparation, the two men who had worked diligently to make the event possible.

    Scott B. Smith, Executive Director of the Institute for Security Studies, is a lean, crew-cut, no-non sense retired Major General of the U.S. Army who did three tours of duty in Vietnam.  He left a bucolic ranch in Wyoming for the job as I.S.S. director just a year ago, and his passion and dedication for his new calling is evident in everything he says.  His associate is Ross Bryant, a jovial and charming man who is Director of Training at I.S.S. and shares Scott's commitment and awareness to the potential dangers facing Southern Nevada.   Nevada is the third most seismically active state in the U.S., after Alaska and California, and the cluster of earthquakes plaguing their home state was uppermost in their minds.   

    The fact that the USGS and seismologists at UNLV were predicting another major event to rival the 1914 magnitude 6.1 event, plus the mounting intensity and frequency of the cluster, had gotten everyone's attention.

    Scott Smith had some polite but direct questions: just what was ProtectingAmerica.org's agenda in coming to Nevada.  It's a question I've gotten in many places: Los Angeles, Seattle, and the Midwest.

    "Our agenda," I explained, "is to support your agenda."   I told Scott and Ross that we were there on the "good neighbor" program, and to learn whatever we could about their work and their needs.  That instantly eased a lot of uncertainty.  ProtectingAmerica.org is far from a household word, like the Red Cross or the USGS, so part of our effort is introducing ourselves to the local community and drawing attention to their programs and wishes.

    The next day, after appearances with Heidi Harris on KDWN radio, KLAS-TV, and a long interview with Dave Berns on KNPR's "The State of Nevada," we were ready for the main event at UNLV.

    The panel included some of the most knowledgeable and committed authorities I've seen in my three years of traveling for our organization.  The introduction was delivered by Dr. Eric Sandgren, Dean of the College of Engineering.  Scott Smith served as moderator, and asked some wonderful questions.  Dr. Jim O'Brien, Clark County Emergency Manager, proved to be one of the most forthright and dedicated EM directors I have seen.  Chief Jon Klassen of Clark County Fire Department, and Lieutenant Steve Menger of the L.V. Metro Police, and Dr. Aly Said of the College of Engineering rounded out the panel.

    They went through a litany that is repeated wherever we go.  Increased building codes, more training and equipment for first responders, and the most important issue of all: citizen awareness, preparation and self-reliance.   Chief Klassen made an interesting remark about Las Vegas’ ever-increasing commercial center: every high rise and casino has its own water source for fire suppression.  I commented that I had never heard of any city in which its commercial buildings had their own water supply, independent of the vulnerable subterranean systems.  I'm a believer that such self-reliance is crucial in areas with earthquake dangers.

    And Jim O'Brien pointed out a major problem for Las Vegas in the event of a major earthquake: Las Vegas is an island surrounded by the desert.  In the likelihood of major damage to freeways and overpasses, plus a disruption of service in and out of McCarron Airport, the city will be isolated.  That will greatly impact any attempts at evacuation of residents and visitors, or importation of assistance.

    Once again, I was reminded why we do this work.  The danger is mounting: as our population grows, and our reliance on our aging systems increases, the threat risk only rises.  Storms and floods in the Midwest are causing unprecedented damages.  An early start to the hurricane season now looms.

    The New York Times stated on October 1, 2007, that a federal catastrophe bill could do what the FDIC does for banks, and provide a safety net for homeowners.  We at ProtectingAmeria.org believe it could go even farther: that an aggressive and ambitious, long-term program of mitigation, with increased support for first responders and a broad campaign to ignite citizen involvement could be the tipping point in protecting our homes, business and lives.

    We're still a small voice, but we believe the chorus is rising.