POST-EARTHQUAKE INFORMATIONAL MEETING WITH THE RESIDENTS OF LOUISA COUNTY FOLLOWING THE 2011 MINERAL, VIRGINIA EARTHQUAKE

Following the Mineral, VA earthquake the authors served on post-earthquake reconnaissance teams and traveled to the impacted regions to assess and document damage. In this capacity, the authors routinely answered questions from individuals about why do earthquakes occur, what are aftershocks, etc. Learning this, the public school superintendent asked if we would be willing to hold a public informational meeting about the earthquake. This was motivated by several events/circumstances: (1) the North Anna Nuclear Power Station is located in Louisa County and was automatically shut down due to the earthquake shaking; (2) there were rumors that the Farmer's Almanac predicted this event and that a larger one was coming; and (3) the Director of the USGS was quoted as saying that she was concerned that this event was just a foreshock and the worst may be yet to come. These events/circumstances caused significant anxiety among the Louisa County residents, and it was clear that there were suspicions that important information was being withheld from them by the USGS, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Dominion Power, etc. This was fostered by the fact that Vepco/Dominion Power and some of the staff members of the NRC were previously accused of not properly disclosing a fault that was found running under the power station during the licensing process; Dominion Power was fined $32k for this infraction.

Over 250 people and 5 news agencies attended the information session. The authors started by making a 45 minute presentation on plate tectonics, magnitude and intensity scales, regional seismicity, observed damage, actions to reduce seismic risk, etc. The presentation was followed by over 2 hrs of questions and answers. The authors did their best to state what was/was not known, what rumors were/were not based on scientific evident, etc. By all accounts the axiom held: “Better than any medication we know, information treats anxiety in a crisis.”