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Cape Girardeau would be the better pick to me. I'd rather take my chances and suffer through an earthquake, which, by the way, I don't think will cause that much major damage, than face the risk of being caught in a disastrous tornado 6-7 months out of the year.
The New Madrid fault system is capable of causing extensive damage across the region. An earthquake the size of the 1811-1812 quakes could easily bring down bridges, brick buildings, portions of the electrical grid, and other infrastructure like gas and water mains, across the area. Not just in Cape, Sikeston, or New Madrid...places like St. Louis and especially Memphis would be damaged considerably. However, the recurrence interval for large earthquake produced by the New Madrid fault system is ~300-1000 years, and it has only been 200 years since the last large earthquake. Large earthquakes can of course happen at any time, but the chance of one occurring within any of our lifetimes is relatively low.
The main earthquake threat to lives in places like Cape are unreinforced masonry buildings, or basically your typical brick buildings, built only with bricks and mortar and no reinforcing steel. They are very brittle structures which perform poorly in earthquakes, and are prone to partial or total collapse. If I was moving to the area, and worried about earthquake risk, I'd either live in a wood-framed home, or perform a basic seismic retrofit on a brick home. You can of course take other simple precautions like attaching bookshelves to the wall, along with storing flashlights, can food, and fresh water, that will keep you safe after an earthquake or other natural disaster.
Joplin is clipped by tornadoes semi=frequently. I missed the last one by one hour. It is enough that I do not want to live in it or very close to it, either.
Joplin, as in the city limits of Joplin, has not had a "disastrous" tornado, nor just a tornado in quite a while. It's 'rare' for a tornado to go through a bigger city. Im not saying it can not happen but it's rare. It's proven!
Cape Girardeau would be the better pick to me. I'd rather take my chances and suffer through an earthquake, which, by the way, I don't think will cause that much major damage, than face the risk of being caught in a disastrous tornado 6-7 months out of the year.
It's not just earthquake, though... it's earthquake and flood.
I've lived in Joplin for 50+ years. Up until the big one that wiped out Pierce City a few years ago I had never seen a tornado "live." I'd seen plenty of them on video after the fact, but got to see this one on a television feed as it was happening. I've hidden in the cellar a few times, but don't personally know anyone who was killed by a tornado.
Number 1 weather-related cause of death: lightning. IMHO, it would be a lot better to worry about things more likely to happen than any of the above.
I visited the Cape a few years ago and lived among the folks for a couple of weeks. It's a nice town. People were friendly. Culturally, it is part of the delta. Joplin is more Ozarkian in culture. It is just a matter of style.
For both cities, a major problem is a large population of low-income people, and a relatively large population of high school dropouts. Joplin probably has had lower unemployment than the Cape if you look over the long haul. The Cape area has a river heritage that is very interesting.
I wouldn't presume to give you a choice, as I don't really know enough about the Cape to weigh them evenly. However, the thing I really like about Joplin is its location in relation to a wide variety of different cultures and terrain types. From here, you can jump off to pretty good sized Ozark mountains, prairies, and the Oklahoma hill country. There are a lot of crystal clear streams nearby, several large man-made lakes, and even some pretty good sized rivers (nothing as big as the Missouri or Mississippi, of course).
We are just over an hour from Fayetteville, Arkansas and Springfield, Missouri. Two hours from Tulsa. Two and one-half from Kansas City. And, three from Wichita, Kansas. All on good highways, double lane with the exception of Wichita.
The New Madrid fault system is capable of causing extensive damage across the region. An earthquake the size of the 1811-1812 quakes could easily bring down bridges, brick buildings, portions of the electrical grid, and other infrastructure like gas and water mains, across the area. Not just in Cape, Sikeston, or New Madrid...places like St. Louis and especially Memphis would be damaged considerably. However, the recurrence interval for large earthquake produced by the New Madrid fault system is ~300-1000 years, and it has only been 200 years since the last large earthquake. Large earthquakes can of course happen at any time, but the chance of one occurring within any of our lifetimes is relatively low.
The main earthquake threat to lives in places like Cape are unreinforced masonry buildings, or basically your typical brick buildings, built only with bricks and mortar and no reinforcing steel. They are very brittle structures which perform poorly in earthquakes, and are prone to partial or total collapse. If I was moving to the area, and worried about earthquake risk, I'd either live in a wood-framed home, or perform a basic seismic retrofit on a brick home. You can of course take other simple precautions like attaching bookshelves to the wall, along with storing flashlights, can food, and fresh water, that will keep you safe after an earthquake or other natural disaster.
If you're a farmer, Cape Girardeau is obviously a much better choice than Joplin. That rocky red soil won't grow anything, whereas in Cape Girardeau it is on the floodplain of the Mississippi and the soil is very rich. It's apparantly among the most fertile soil in the country...you can grow almost anything out of it...tobacco, cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans...pretty much any kind of row crop.
Would the Caruthersville bridge probably go down in a major earthquake?
Many of the large interstate bridges over the Mississippi have undergone seismic retrofits in the past few decades, so they will not collapse during a large earthquake. I believe this includes the I-57 bridge near Cairo, IL and the Hernando de Soto bridge that carries I-55 and I-40 between Memphis and Arkansas. I'm not sure about the bridge at Caruthersville...if it has been retrofitted to withstand an earthquake, it would be safe (although likely damaged to some degree). If it hasn't, then it very well could collapse.
Well, I have to say with the benefit of hindsight that this statement is quite wrong. Tornados DO hit larger towns, including Dallas and Atlanta, and now Joplin, MO. I think Cape might be the better choice...
Quote:
Originally Posted by codnator
Joplin, as in the city limits of Joplin, has not had a "disastrous" tornado, nor just a tornado in quite a while. It's 'rare' for a tornado to go through a bigger city. Im not saying it can not happen but it's rare. It's proven!
Last edited by socaldream; 07-10-2011 at 06:49 PM..
Reason: typo
Well, I have to say with the benefit of hindsight that this statement is quite wrong. Tornados DO hit larger towns, including Dallas and Atlanta, and now Joplin, MO. I think Cape might be the better choice...
there is a valid argument about big cities getting hit less.
Ever hear of the "heat island" effect? What it does for example here in St. Louis are temps especially in the summer can be a few degrees warmer than the surrounding areas. However the dewpoint is lower, and the air is a little more dry because of all the asphault on the ground in urban areas compared to the rural areas of southern MO or across the river in IL.
When storms move towards a large city they tend to weaken at times due to the more drier area. It happens all the time in St. Louis. When the storms move into IL over the moist, rural farmland they quickly get stronger.
Of course thats not always the case as we saw with the North County tornado in April, but urban areas do have an effect.
Dave Murray talks about the heat island all the time and how storms weaken due to the hotter, but drier air.
Thats why you notice rural southern MO for example always seems to have wicked weather more often.
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