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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. 

Sonja D. Schmid is a professor at Virginia Tech in Northern Virginia. Her studies and research focus on “technology policy, qualitative studies of risk, energy policy, and nuclear nonproliferation” as stated on her directory website for VT. She has been an associate professor since 2011 and her current project, such as the article suggests, is investigating the challenges of globalizing nuclear emergency response. She has many published articles including her most recent publication in Global Forum earlier this year titled “What if there’s a next time? Preparedness after Chernobyl and Fukushima - A European-American response.”

This policy was an expansion of the Social Security Act of 1965 and set clearer guidelines regurding classifications of mentally disabled individuals, and the leaneances set fourth due to their disability. 

A child's perspective would increase the emotional aspect of the film.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) is an organization that provides emergnecy medical aid to communities affeted by conflict, epidemics, disasters, and more. It's composed of mostly physicians and other health care workers, but is accepting of individuals which will help it achieve it's goals. MSF takes a neutral stance on issues as they only strictly abide by medical ethics.

The article uses historical references to provide context to the problems faced and information gained. Through each event it evaluates the individual which they, and the general public considers at fault. 

The article contains many referneces mostly for its diagrams and data, that pull information from government studies. Unfortunately there is not a Bibliogrpahy in the reading, but I am assuming that it would contain many government sources.

The article discusses the need for emergency medical responders to be able to have a healthy and productive de-brief session. This is imparitive because, as the article discusses, responders are one of the first individuals to be affected by disasters because their diverse involvement in the clean up. 

This article emphasizes that in existing research which concerns violence against health care workers in politically and culturally complex environments. This lack of research is primarily noted to be caused by the discrepancies between public opinion and government opinion. The suggestion put forth by the article is that aid organizations make their data easily accessible and are provided with greater funding when researching or assisting with violence against health workers.