More than 440,000 in Missouri to Participate in Nationwide Drill            

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With just one week to go, communities throughout Missouri are preparing for the fourth annual Great Central U.S. ShakeOut Earthquake Drill, scheduled for October 16 at 10:16 a.m. 

Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills are occurring in more than 45 states and territories — nationwide more than 19 million people are expected to participate in the activity.  During the drill, participants simultaneously practice the recommended response to earthquake shaking:

• DROP to the ground
• Take COVER by getting under a sturdy desk or table, or cover your head/neck with your arms, and
• HOLD ON until the shaking stops

The ShakeOut is free and open to the public.  Participants include individuals, schools, businesses, local and state government agencies and many other groups. See the list of all the participants in Missouri at, www.shakeout.org/centralus/participants.php?start=Missouri. The goal of the program is to engage individuals to take steps to become better prepared for earthquakes and other disasters. 

“Participating in this drill is a quick, simple thing we should all do—at work, at home, alone or with family or co-workers—to prepare for earthquakes,” said Regional Administrator Beth Freeman, FEMA Region VII. “When we practice ‘drop, cover and hold on’ it makes it more likely we will react appropriately during an earthquake and that can and does save lives.”

States participating in the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut include Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

Interested citizens, schools, communities, businesses, etc. are encouraged to visit http://www.shakeout.org/centralus/register to register to participate and receive instructions on how to hold their earthquake drill. On social media, information about the drill is being provided on Twitter through www.twitter.com/CentUS_ShakeOut. In addition, www.twitter.com/femaregion7 and others are tweeting earthquake safety tips and drill information using the hashtag #ShakeOut.

The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut is being coordinated by Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium and its other Member and Associate States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey and dozens of other partners.

Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills began in California in 2008 and have expanded each year since then.

###

Visit FEMA Region VII online at www.fema.gov/region7. Follow FEMA online at www.twitter.com/femaregion7, www.twitter.com/fema, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema.  Also, follow Administrator Craig Fugate’s activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema.  The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.