One of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit the United States happened in southeast Missouri along the Mississippi River. Geologists consider the New Madrid fault line a major seismic zone and predict that an earthquake roughly the magnitude of the Haiti earthquake could occur in the area during the next 50 years. "I would like to see far more retrofit programs, strengthening of buildings, especially masonry buildings, tying down bridges," crisis consultant Mark Ghilarducci said of the region, which in some areas is triple the U.S. poverty rate.
