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I'm interested in better understanding the ongoing geological processes that shape St. Louis and the Mississippi Valley region. So far, I've been looking into the history of seismicity in the region, focusing on the fascinating but little known history of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 -- the most devastating earthquakes to have hit the US east of the Rockies. I've also been exploring how St. Louis and surrounding areas are dealing with the possibility of another earthquake occurring in the future. According to one article I read, one of the biggest uncertainties is what would happen to the heavily engineered Mississippi River in the case of another major tremblor. The shaking could break the levees, flooding wide areas along the river and creating cascading effects. The flow of the river might also reverse completely, as occurred during the New Madrid earthquakes.

On these possibilities and the lack of scientific consensus surrounding intraplate seismicity in this zone, see this article in The Atlantic.

On current efforts to create earthquake hazard maps in St. Louis, see this overview on the US Geological Survey site.

For a deeper dive into the history of the New Madrid earthquakes, see this book by historian of science Conevery Bolton Valencius. 

Actors reffered to:

Firefights:

                Thomas Von Essen was the city's fire commissioner.

                Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer was the first fire chief to begin operations on 9/11. He sent companies into the towers but found he was unable to properly communicate with them.

                Deputy Assistant Chief Albert J. Turi was one of the firefighters in the towers that day who was unable to send and receive communications.

                Assistant Chief Joseph Callan was in the north tower and ordered an evacuation order after felling the floor shifting. His order was largely unheard.

                Assistant Chief Donald J. Burns was at both the 1993 bombings as well as the 9/11 attacks on the towers. On 9/11 he died leading operations in tower 2.

                Mr. Modica, a firefighter, could not reach a friend who was a few floors above him with his radio equipment over any of the channels.

                Mr. Campagna, a Firefighter, remembers getting out just before his tower fell.

Police:

                Police Commissioner (at time of article’s writting) Kelly stated that there was no link between the various first response agencies on the day.

                Bernard B. Kerik was the police commissioner on the day of the attack. He claimed that he was unaware of any communication issues during the incident.

                Sergeant Moscola was a police officer.

Government:

                Rudolph W. Giuliani was the mayor of NYC.

                Richard J. Sheirer was the former director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and a fire dispatcher when speaking of the first responder’s communication equipment he said: “We're dinosaurs”.

                Naval War College helped do and self-examination of the fire department’s command and control after the disaster.

                James Ellson was a former deputy in the city's Office of Emergency Management

Civilians:

Ms. Frederick was a civilian who barely got clear of the towers in time. She credits a firefighter for saving her life saying: “He stayed there because there were more people behind us''.

David Rosensweig was the president of the fire alarm dispatchers' union.

Sharon Premoli was an executive vice president of Beast Financial Systems.

This article relates to public health as the conditions of the island prison are a health concern of themselves and other conditions exacerbate existing health issues of inmates there. It also addresses the issues with healthcare, housing, and financial stability after release from the system.

Community leaders and professionals across various countries and communities to prepare them to lead their communities during disaster management.

The platforms provides online video sessions with healthcare professionals as well as quick assessments that can be taken anytime, anywhere as well as sensors that can be worn. These assessments are tracked (privately) and turned into graphical data that can be easily analyzed by both the patient and the provider.

It has been cited 39 times as of 10/23 according to google scholar, the majority of these being disaster/mental health related articles.

The author of this article is Sonja D. Schmid.  Sonja has degrees in science, technology and society (STS) as well as experience in organizational theory, disaster social issues, and studied risk in relation to different societies and cultures throughout the world.

The report data covers from April 26th 1986 (the date of the disaster) to 2006 (the year the report was published).

The IAEA failed to properly prevent the Three Mile Island or Chernobyl incidents. After these events the IAEA started two conventions for notification and response to nuclear disasters. Since the Fukushima incident, the IAEA has evolved the way they approach disaster and health to include even the most outlandish scenarios and actively trains first responders how to deal with such occurrences.  (iaea.org)