Today, an estimated 11 million people live in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, according to TransRe, a reinsurance company that essentially insures the property insurance companies. "The big thing we prepare for is with New Madrid," [John] Bobel [Kentucky public emergency management information officer] said. "Depending on the significance of an earthquake, Memphis, Tennessee, would be gone; St. Louis would be wrecked."...
Bobel didn't sugarcoat it. It would be bad. "Anything west of I-65, infrastructure would be severely damaged," Bobel said of the interstate that bisects Kentucky and Tennessee. "The ground could even liquify and turn to mud," which happened in 1811 and 1812.
In a 7.7 magnitude earthquake along the New Madrid Fault, the Mid-America Earthquake Center at the University of Illinois estimated in 2008 that Tennessee would have the worst damage: 250,000 buildings moderately or severely damaged, more than 260,000 people displaced, significantly more than 60,000 injuries and fatalities, total direct economic losses surpassing $56 billion, $64 billion today when adjusted for inflation. Kentucky would have the next most significant damage, totaling $45 billion, $52 billion today.
