Historic Earthquakes Accounts Guide Modern First Responders

A colorful mural on the side of a brick building with the words "Welcome to Historic New Madrid" and "The Great Quakes" at dusk

On December 16, 1811, a U.S. Army officer stationed in the soon-to-be-established Missouri Territory woke just after 2 a.m. reacting to what he described as a “great agitation”, an earthquake. Several of the officer’s guards, he soon wrote to a friend, “could scarcely keep their feet” during the shaking, which he said lasted about eight…

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