Why America Should Be On High Alert For A Major Earthquake Along The New Madrid Fault

Michael Snyder is the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, The American Dream Blog and The Truth. You can follow him on Twitter right here

Did you know that a magnitude 3.5 earthquake hit the New Madrid fault about a week ago? According to Fox News, the New Madrid fault line is approximately twenty times larger than the San Andreas fault in California, and it is starting to wake up.  Most people don’t realize this, but this fault zone has produced some of the largest earthquakes in U.S. history.  In 1811 and 1812, immensely powerful earthquakes along the New Madrid fault rang church bells in Boston and permanently changed the course of the Mississippi River.  If we had similar earthquakes today, the devastation would be unimaginable.  Unfortunately for us, earthquake activity in the middle part of the country is becoming much more common.  The USGS says that the number of significant earthquakes in the middle part of the country has more than quintupled in recent years, and the USGS has publicly admitted that the New Madrid fault zone has the “potential for larger and more powerful quakes than previously thought“.  Very few Americans are talking about this right now, but as you will see below, the threat is very, very real.

According to international insurance giant Swiss Re, if the 1811 and 1812 New Madrid earthquakes were to repeat today, the losses would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars…

A series of big shakes — of the sort last seen in 1811 and 1812 — would cause about $300 billion in damage, Swiss Re says. The cost would be double the damage from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.

Houses — especially brick ones — would collapse. Buildings would sink sideways into liquefying earth. Bridges might tumble into the rivers. The route of the Mississippi River could change — as it did in the last big quake.

People would die, perhaps by the thousands. Being mainly a property reinsurer, Swiss Re didn’t estimate the human toll.

Could you imagine what that would do to our nation?

The financial markets would collapse, the federal government would simply be unable to aid everyone that was suffering, and transportation on and across the Mississippi River would be brought to a standstill.

And this is a threat that government officials take quite seriously.  In fact, the U.S. Northern Command was just involved in a large scale exercise that simulated a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault…

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) along with representatives from other state agencies, National Guard Bureau, U.S. Northern Command, and the Polish Armed Forces participated in the exercise, providing incident management and emergency management teams, agency technical experts and military personnel to support the military’s training scenario.

“We gained a tremendous amount of insight by having IEMA, other civilian agencies, National Guard Bureau, U.S. NORTHCOM and Poland participate in this event,” said Col. Rick G. Yoder, commander of the joint task force. “It’s critical to strengthen partnerships with local, state, and federal partners before a disaster happens.”

The exercise simulated a 7.2 magnitude earthquake centered on the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The event took place at the 183rd Fighter Wing and the Joint Forces Headquarters in Springfield, Illinois.

So is there a reason why we should be particularly concerned about the potential for a New Madrid earthquake right now?

Yes, I believe that there is.

On September 15th, the 70th session of the UN General Assembly begins.  The U.S. media is not saying much about this, but it is being widely reported in the international media that France plans to introduce a resolution which will give formal UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state shortly after the new session starts.  For much more on these developments, please see this article.  For years, the U.S. government has been the one standing in the way of such a resolution, but now Barack Obama is indicating that he may not stand in the way this time around.  The following comes from the Los Angeles Times…

President Obama took a step toward a tougher line with Israel in an interview released Tuesday, raising the possibility that the U.S. will allow a United Nations vote on issues related to the Palestinians if the two sides make no meaningful movement toward peace.

In an interview with an Israeli television station, Obama noted that his administration has “up until this point” quashed such efforts at the U.N. while insisting that the Israelis and Palestinians must negotiate a resolution. But he said it is a challenge for the U.S. to keep demanding that the Palestinians negotiate in good faith if no one believes the Israelis are doing the same.

“How do we move off what appears right now to be a hopeless situation and move it back towards a hopeful situation?” Obama asked in the interview. “That will require more than just words. That will require some actions. And that’s going to be hard work, though, because right now I think there’s not a lot of confidence in the process.”

In essence, the decision to divide the land of Israel into two pieces lies in Obama’s hands.

If Barack Obama gives the go ahead, there will be a UN Security Council resolution establishing a Palestinian state.

And once that happens, all hell could break loose.  For many years, people all over the world have been connecting the division of the land of Israel with the coming New Madrid earthquake.  For example, just consider what Shane Warren shared during an interview with Sid Roth…

Could we be right on the verge of seeing this take place?

Without a doubt, America is ripe for judgment.  We have shaken our fists at God as we continue to plunge even more deeply into wickedness.  I believe that one of the reasons why the Planned Parenthood videos have come out right at this time is to show us just how evil we have become.  But instead of repenting and shutting Planned Parenthood down, our officials are actually attacking the organization that put out the videos.

I could go on and on, but I think that you get the point.  Our nation has fallen, and we desperately need to turn from our wicked ways.

Instead of just talking about these things, my friends and I want to be part of the solution.  So Benjamin Baruch, Nathan Leal, Lyn Leahz and I are organizing a nationwide call to prayer and repentance on the weekend of September 18th through September 20th.  The main event is going to be held in Sandpoint, Idaho and others are going to be organizing similar events in their own cities.  You can find details about the Sandpoint event right here.  If you cannot attend an event in person, the Sandpoint conference is going to be livestreamed on the Internet on Lyn Leahz’s 65,000 subscriber YouTube channel.  You can listen to a recent interview where I discussed this upcoming event right here.

Don’t just sit there and curse the darkness.

Be part of the solution.  Join us in prayer during this very important weekend.

Yes, a great shaking is coming to America, but out of this shaking could come a great revival.

And without a doubt, America desperately needs one.

Michael Snyder is the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, The American Dream Blog and The Truth. You can follow him on Twitter right here