In the wake of the disasters which devastated parts of Japan, Russell Nichols of Governing investigates the state of disaster preparedness in US cities and states.
According to Nichols' interviews with Oregon State University scientists, "a major earthquake - such as the ones that have hit Indonesia, Chile, Haiti, New Zealand and now Japan - has a one-in-three chance of striking the U.S. in the next 50 years."
Reasons for concern in the U.S., according to Nichols:
- "The U.S. is not nearly as well prepared as Japan was," says John Orcutt, a seismologist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
- The U.S. is still not prepared for another tsunami, according to a report from the National Research Council.
- A study by the American Medical Association showed that 45% of the states with nuclear power plants had "no response for a nuclear disaster."
Read the full story: Are U.S. States and Cities Prepared for a Disaster?
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