Catastrophic Earthquake Planning 

Fact SheetFact Sheet 

NEW MADRID SEISMIC ZONE 


The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is working with 
the eight states of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) in the central United States on a catastrophic 
earthquake response plan that involves partnerships and collaboration with hundreds of government 
agencies; business, industry and voluntary organizations; and scientific and academic institutions. The states 
include Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. 

 

The initial phase of the endeavor involved scenario-driven planning workshops in the NMSZ states and local 
level tabletop exercises. Workshop participants included operational and planning personnel from all levels of 
government and the private and academic sector. State and local participants include emergency service 
coordinators, emergency management staff, county emergency managers, state and local law enforcement, 
fire and emergency medical personnel, public works and public health. 

The initiative is one of the most comprehensive and complex catastrophic disaster planning endeavors 
undertaken. FEMA deployed emergency planners to the eight states and the four FEMA Regions and is 
supporting the participation of the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium, the Mid-America Earthquake Center, 
Sandia National Laboratories and George Washington University’s Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk 
Management. 

 

A catastrophic earthquake event in the NMSZ, which runs from west of Memphis, Tenn., into southern Illinois, 
would impact a much larger area than would a similar earthquake in California. That’s because the NMSZ is 
the largest area in the world that is susceptible to soil liquefaction and because the earth’s crust in the Central 
and Eastern U.S. transmits earthquake ground shaking farther and more efficiently than the West Coast, 
according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Cost estimates for building loss alone exceed $70 billion 
dollars. 

 

The work involves FEMA Headquarters, four FEMA Regions, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Northern Command, the 
American Red Cross and more than 200 local governments. While the states establish their own planning 
objectives, the overall goal is to establish a unified response approach that integrates emergency 
management, private sector and critical infrastructure communities into a single, coordinated response with 
federal, state, local, tribal and other government entities. 

 

The largest earthquakes in history in the continental United States occurred along the New Madrid zone in the 
winter of 1811–1812. Moderate earthquakes have occurred several times in the past century in Central U.S., 
including a 5.2 quake on April 18, 2008, in the Wabash Valley seismic zone in southwestern Illinois, just north 
east of the New Madrid area. 

 

The New Madrid planning initiative is part of a large catastrophic planning effort under way at FEMA that 
includes working with states to develop plans for managing mass evacuations and sheltering, conducting risk 
analyses and planning for hurricane response and recovery. 

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work 
together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, 
recover from, and mitigate all hazards.