This Morning’s natural disaster in Oklahoma Is Disturbing

The U.S. Geological Survey, in a March report on “induced earthquakes”, said as many as 7.9 million people in parts of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas now face the same quake risks as those in California. Other tremors in these fracking regions include a 5.3-magnitude quake near Trinidad, Colorado, in 2011 and a 4.8-magnitude quake near Timpson, Texas, in 2012.

Oklahoma is recording 2-1/2 earthquakes daily of a magnitude 3 or greater, a seismicity rate 600 times greater than before 2008, the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) said.

The commission on Saturday ordered oil and gas field wastewater-disposal wells within an approximately 500-square-mile area around the epicenter to shut down within seven to 10 days because of previous connections between the injection of wastewater and earthquakes. State and local emergency management officials and officials from the U.S. Geological Survey assessed damage Sunday, according to Pawnee County Emergency Management Director Mark Randell.

Wills said buildings in the downtown area are cracked and sandstone facing on some buildings fell and described the scene as “a mess”. The man was treated at a hospital and released.

“This emergency declaration will start the process to helping individuals, families and businesses impacted by the earthquakes and serves as a precursor to requesting any necessary assistance”, Fallin said.

Damage also was reported in Humboldt, Pawnee City, Peru, Shubert, Stella and St. Mary and in parts of Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Dallas TV station WFAA tweeted that the quake shook their studios, too.

Sean Weide in Omaha, Nebraska, told The Associated Press that he’d never been in an natural disaster before and thought he was getting dizzy. None mentioned damage, he said. Bellini said photos he’d seen mostly just showed bricks falling off basements and the like.

The Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma said that all its “buildings have damage to such an extent that we will be closed until inspections can determine whether they are safe to occupy or not”.

The 5.6-magnitude quake struck Saturday morning about 8 miles northwest of Pawnee City, damaging buildings, shaking food from shelves in local supermarkets and sending shock waves through several Midwestern states.

If you felt the quake you should go online and fill out a report using the United States Geological survey.

“Then it just. Everything went insane after that”.

Oklahoma and Kansas had upticks in quakes in the first half of this decade.

The magnitude 5.6 quake, which was felt from South Dakota to Texas, prompted the closure of some 35 wastewater disposal wells in the area, officials said.