[KYHAM] Earthquake Preparedness Week

[Ron Dodson]

Kentucky used to have an Earthquake Preparedness Month in October.  This
year, for some reason, they have shortened this down to one week in
February.

The annual earthquake drill will occur at 10:07 on February 7 and occurs
on the anniversary of the last of the three big quakes to rock the New
Madrid area between December 1811 and February 1812. 

Below is the text of diary entries made by George H. Crist, a resident
of Nelson County at the time of the 1811-1812 quakes. You might find it
interesting. I have seen no written accounts from any farther west from
the period.  If this was in Nelson County, one can only imagine the
turmoil further west! It also includes the original spellings from his
writing.  No corrections are made. This was provided through KyEM's
earthquake program:

 
16 December 1811

"There was a great shaking of the earth this morning. Tables and chairs
turned over and knocked around - all of us knocked out of bed. The roar
I thought would leave us deaf if we lived. It was not a storm. when you
could hear, all you cold hear was screams from people and animals. It
was the worst thing that I have ever witnessed. It was still dark and
you could not see nothing. I thought the shaking and the loud roaring
sound would never stop. You could not hold onto nothing neither man or
woman was strong enough - the shaking would knock you lose like knocking
hicrornuts out of a tree. I don't know how we lived through it. None of
us was killed - we was all banged up and some of us knocked out for
awhile and blood was every where. When it got daybreak you could see the
damage done all around. We still had our home it was some damage. Some
people that the home was not built to strong did not. We will have to
hunt our animals. Everybody is scared to death. We still do not know if
anybody was killed. I made my mind to one thing. If this earthquake or
what ever it was did not happen in the Territory of Indiana then me and
my family is moving to Pigeon Roost as soon as I can get things
together. 

23 January 1812

"What are we gonna do? You cannot fight it cause you do not know how. It
is not something that you can see. In a storm you can see the sky and it
shows dark clouds and you know that you might get strong winds but this
you can not see anything but a house that just lays in a pile on the
ground - not scattered around and trees that just falls over with the
roots still on it. The earth quake or what ever it is come again today.
It was as bad or worse than the one in December. We lost our Amandy Jane
in this one - a log fell on her. We will bury her upon the hill under a
clump of trees where Besys Ma and Pa is buried. A lot of people thinks
that the devil has come here. Some thinks that this is the beginning of
the world coming to a end. 

8 February 1812

"If we do not get away from here the ground is going to eat us alive. We
had another one of them earth quakes yesterday and today the ground
still shakes at times. We are all about to go crazy - from pain and
fright. We cannot do anything until we can find our animals or get some
more. We have not found enough to pull the wagons. 

20 March 1812

"I do not know if our minds have got bad or what. But everybody says it.
I swear you can still feel the ground move and shake some. We still have
not found enough animals to pull the wagons and you cannot find any to
buy or trade.