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Mary Moran speaking at Wabash Valley earthquake tabletop exercise

The IDHS Exercise Section hosted more than 150 emergency management personnel on Dec. 2 to prepare for the possibility of a large-magnitude earthquake striking much of the state.

Representatives from 62 agencies (county, state, national and private sector) met to discuss their roles and capabilities in the event of a catastrophic earthquake whose epicenter is in the Wabash valley seismic zone, which is in southwestern Indiana and can produce magnitude 7.0 level earthquakes. These are large enough to cause severe damage to buildings, significant economic distress and great loss of life over a wide region.

The state already has an emergency operations plan for such a disaster, so this exercise was the second in a series of three trainings to ensure agencies know what to do and work out any issues with the plan before real-world use.

Officials discussed how to handle roads and bridges being damaged, where emergency operations teams would be stationed, what communication methods would be used if main networks were disrupted, how public messaging would be handled and more.

“It was great to bring everyone together from the full range of agencies and organizations — including our State Emergency Operations Center, state Incident Management Assistance Team and Indiana Building Emergency Assessment and Monitoring team — to discuss how they would work together. The support we received from other states wanting to be involved was wonderful as well,” said State Exercise Officer Ashley Baldwin. “A 7.5 magnitude earthquake would be bad for Indiana, and we would need all the support we can get.”

The final exercise in the series will be a full-scale simulation in June 2025. Groups of participants at multiple locations will practice as if the earthquake occurred.

Learn more about Indiana’s earthquake risks and what to do at GetPrepared.in.gov.

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