Earthquake Drills in Indiana???

Just thought if anyone else thinks this is pointless, but when I used to live in Northern Indiana, we had Earthquake Drills. Now I live in Ohio, and we never have earthquake drills. I thought that when we had them in Indiana it was pointless, but can anybody think of WHY we had them there? :smiley: And no, there were never any earthquakes. :roll:

A possibility is that Indiana is closer to the New Madrid fault than Ohio. The damage zone from the 1895 earthquake covers at least half the state. This earthquake was a lower magnitude than the 1811 & 1812 events. Those earlier quakes created Reelfoot Lake in northwest TN. Even though the northern part of the state is not in the damage area the drills probably are a statewide policy.

Map of 1895 earthquake damage zone.

Here’s a quote from an article I found online:

[quote] Indiana state law does require that schools perform monthly fire drills, but the law also allows school districts the ability to substitute other disaster-preparedness drills — like lockdowns, earthquake or tornado drills – in place of a monthly fire drill. Those substitutions cannot occur, however, in back to back months or more than twice per semester, according to state law. [/quote]

So it’s possible your district was using an earthquake drill to circumvent the fire drill requirement. This would make sense in the colder months of the year.

Source: http://wishtv.com/2016/10/25/i-team-8-dozens-of-indiana-schools-failing-to-perform-fire-drills/

We had earthquake drills and tornado drills.

both were identical.

Ok, that’s probably why. Thanks for the info. I never even knew that. I guess you learn something new every day! :slight_smile: