Illinois Earthquake Aftershock Safety Along New Madrid Fault

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS)official earthquake monitoring site, a place near the bottom of the state of Illinois on a regional map, and towards the right-hand state border on your home map of Illinois, has been having earthquakes and aftershocks to earthquakes today. (Click here to get to the USGS site.)

(Yes, I know that this place has a name, but some of us need a quick visual to know where to look on the map for "Bone Gap" 6-miles from where the main quake happened; or, "West Salem" 7-miles away from where the main quake happened.)

For the 5-state area feeling these earthquakes and aftershocks today, many people are now concerned about a larger earthquake happening in the future. Yes, now is a very good time to think about safe-guarding your home and office in preparation for future earthquakes or aftershocks. That earthquake fault is always going to be right next door.

Every child in Southern California, for decades, has been raised with the knowledge of what to expect and how to react to an earthquake. For many of us, we plan daily for the earth to shift at any second for the rest of our lives without realizing that we are doing it. When we enter a new building, we just naturally glance around to see what windows will shatter on us, and where the desks are to dive under.

Here's a little about what you need to know to remain safe while living in earthquake country:

Earthquake Water Heaters: Keep a wrench beside your gas water heater or heater turn off switch, and use this wrench to turn off your gas before you light up a calm-the-nerves cigarette. Do not light anything - no stove, hot water, candle, etc... after an earthquake until you know that there are no gas leaks. Your children need to be able to use that wrench too. Wrenches can be turned by little people if you show them how to use a cheater bar on the end of the handle.

Earthquake Running Outside: In the middle of an earthquake, do not run outside where you will be injured by falling building pieces, falling trees, or falling power lines. You are safer inside of your home.

Earthquake Walls: Every member of the family needs to know where their home has the strong retaining walls. These are the walls that hold up the house; these walls are your strong walls. When an earthquake happens, get under the doorway in one of these walls and hang on to the frame. If your bedrooms do not have retaining walls, make sure that there is a piece of sturdy furniture available to dive under.

Earthquake Away From Home: When you are not inside of your own home, notice the building that you are going into as you enter it. Do not run towards large windows, isles with things that can hurt you if they fall, or towards any "iffy" looking hanging heaters or lights on the ceiling if an earthquake hits while you are away from home. Look up, look down, and look all around before making a decision on where to stand during an earthquake in a strange building.

Earthquake Wall Hangings: Everything hanging on a wall inside of your home can fall. Protect yourselves and your belongings by nailing straight into a sturdy wall-beam, and always adding two or three wadded up balls of duct tape to the backside of the wall hangings so that they stick to the wall. Even in bad earthquakes duct tape seems to work enough to let the picture fall off of the wall in slow-motion.

Earthquake Furniture: All tall pieces of furniture can fall. Know where these pieces are in your mind so that you can get around them in the dark if you must, and than stay away from them for a few days. Aftershocks can sometimes be just as bad as your first big earthquake. You should always anchor bookcases and other tall furniture into a wall or ceiling beam.

Earthquake Small Items: All small items on tables or on shelves in your home will fall off in an earthquake. Protect your favorite items with a little duct tape or double-stick tape on the bottoms. Walk through each room in your home, office, garage, and basement sticking things down until you are sure that you have secured everything that you want to keep or that might fall and hurt somebody.

Earthquake Pack Rat Syndrom: If you find yourself in a bad situation after an earthquake, you will thank yourself later for always acting like a pack-rat and leaving large handfuls of hard candies in your purse, briefcase, desk top candy bowl, glove box, backpack, and anywhere else that they might come in handy if you are pinned under some debris for a few days. Or, if you just feel like eating due to the stress after an earthquake.

Earthquake Cupboards: Every cupboard in your home needs a door latch or a catch closure so that everything behind the doors doesn't become missiles that are aiming at you while the world is shaking. If you can't get door catches put on for a little bit, get out that handy roll of duct tape. Your medicine cabinet is important to secure. Broken bottles of chemicals often have poisonous odors when mixed.

Earthquake No-No: About cupboards; do not open any of them after an earthquake without thought. I once opened one of my cupboards a few days after a larger earthquake and broke a toe. The canned goods inside showered down on my bare feet. The canned goods had shifted during the earthquake, and were held back by my door catch. I wasn't thinking about earthquakes a few days later when I opened that door for the first time after the quake.

Earthquake Elderly Neighbors: After a large earthquake, and after you know that your home is secure, go introduce yourself (if necessary) to all of your elderly neighbors. Many elderly people do not have a family right next door to check on them and their gas cut-off chores.

Earthquake Phone Use: After a large earthquake, stay off of the phone. It is natural to want to talk about what just happened, but don't. The phone service needs to remain available to those needing to make emergency calls. When everybody tries to use phones all at once, the system crashes.

Earthquake Pets: After a large quake, be ready for large aftershocks to happen for a few days. Keep checking on your elderly neighbors each time that a large aftershock happens. And, understand that your pets can feel all of the big and little aftershocks more than you can and that they are probably very upset. Warn your children that your pets might be upset, so that they are ready if the dog tries to snap, or the cat runs away to hide for a few days.

Earthquake in Car: If you are in a car while an earthquake hits, it will feel like your car is being thrown around on the road like it is in a big wind, without any wind blowing. Pull over in a place that nothing is going to fall on the car, and stay in it until after the shaking is completely over and you are sure that the road is safe to continue driving on. Listen to your radio for reports of road closures.