EMA will move to OCTC if 'Big One" hits

Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·3 min read

Jul. 13—The U.S. Geological Service has said that there's a 90% chance that an earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone measuring 6 to 7.5 will happen by 2040.

And if that happens, Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said Tuesday, the Daviess County Courthouse will be gone.

Bedrock is 60 feet or more beneath the surface of downtown, he said.

So, the county signed an agreement with Owensboro Community & Technical College for Daviess County Emergency Management to move its operations to a computer lab on the OCTC campus if that ever happens.

John Clouse, EMA's deputy director, told Daviess Fiscal Court that seismically the OCTC campus is the safest place to be in an earthquake.

Scott Williams, president of OCTC, told the court he hopes the site is never needed for emergency management.

But, if it is, he said, the college is happy to let the agency use the campus at no charge.

"We started talking about this several years ago, but the pandemic derailed us," Williams said before the meeting. "We have all the connectivity out here that they would need. But if there are things that they would need and don't have, we can work with them on getting grants."

Western Kentucky is in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which also covers parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee.

The fault line is the most active earthquake area east of the Rockies.

Downtown sits on a prehistoric riverbed that contains silt, fine sands, clay and water.

The former riverbed channel is 2,000 to 3,000 feet wide and is bound by Veterans Boulevard to the north and Fifth Street to the south.

Owensboro has been rattled by more than 20 earthquakes since Dec. 16, 1811, when the "Big One," centered in New Madrid, Missouri, hit.

It is believed to have registered between 7.2 and 8.2 on the Richter scale.

But neither that quake nor any sense have caused major damage here.

Historians say the 1811 quake was felt over a 50,000-square-mile area — as far away as Boston.

In 1997, Fiscal Court bought the old Thruston School and surrounding land from the Daviess County Board of Education for $115,000.

The land eventually became part of Yellow Creek Park.

A committee investigating uses for the old school building suggested that it become a communications center for the county — primarily because of the earthquake possibility.

The report said, "We understand that the geology of the area would be much safer than other areas close to the river in the event of an earthquake. We also have been told that there are underground phone cables that already join the park property that could give reliable service during a storm."

But the Daviess County Sheriff's Department objected to the plan.

Then-Sheriff John Bouvier said that removing dispatch from the proximity of the courthouse — which would be the headquarters of any emergency response team in a natural disaster — would cause logistical problems in a crisis.

That plan was eventually rejected and the building, erected in 1928, was razed in 2000.

Now, the county finally has a backup plan if — or when — the "Big One" hits.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com.