http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/nmhwb1214a.htm

At about the same time a dam broke 150 miles SW of St. Louis.
Double Wammy is possible for some folks.

They're anticipating a big one on the New Madrid aren't they?

Yes, there is a major fault called the New Madrid Fault. I think the biggest earthquake to hit North America happened there about 300 years ago.
It turns out that the quake in New Madrid happened at 11:40 the night before. They were reporting in GMT as 5:40 this morning.
Jon

Local time for the quake was Tuesday, December 13, 2005 at 11:40:04 PM. A quake of just under 2 on the Richter Scale is just not worth mentioning. If you go to
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/
you'll see over 250 quakes in California in the last week, none of which made news. Looks like the largest was a 3. It takes over a four the get any attention. I'm sure no one in Missouri even knew a quake was happening at 1.9.

The dam failure was not due to an earthquake. It was reportedly due to faulty automated equipment that controls the water level in the lake. The equipment overfilled the reservoir causing the dam to give way. Fortunately, relatively few people were hurt, and it could have been much worse.

Unfortuantely, the 3 that were seriously injured were young children. Hopefully, they will recover completely, and this won't ruin their Christmas.

Greg

Actually lots of folks notice small tremors. They're called wild and domesticated animals. If I was to import a fine Missouri mule or Foxtrotter the first week I'd just turn them out in a pasture. Why? equines have thousands of nerve endings in their feet and feel tremors we can't. A good horseman who brings stock to or out of California knows enough to give them time to settle down. In any case natural disasters of any magnitude are an opportunity for people to increase their awareness. We've had a notable increase in seaspouts off California lately. Friend of mine who lives on a boat is building a storm cellar in the bilge <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Chris,
Make sure he has plenty of scuba equipment with him if you go visit during a storm, OK. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />