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MISSOURI DIVISION |
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEPTEMBER 2000 POST EARTHQUAKE HIGHWAY RESPONSE AND RECOVERY SEMINAR HELD IN ST. LOUIS MISSOURI
CLOSING BY J.T. YARNELL
MR. MOSELEY: Now, to close out the conference is J.T. Yarnell, MoDOT's Chief Engineer.
MR. YARNELL: Thanks, Bobby. I've not been able to attend the entire conference, but I've heard enough to know this has been an outstanding conference.
During the past three days you've all had excellent opportunities to hear more about what we can expect when the big one hits. My measure of a successful conference is how much I learned. In just my few hours here, I've learned a great deal and I know we have to do more in Missouri. I hope that you've learned a lot and plan to take home with you some things you can actually implement or change to improve upon your emergency response activities.
We've heard about emergency response, cleanup, and repairs, and where we can get the money. So I hope from that, you've found some resources that can help you in planning for a disaster and when you have to respond to one.
We do not have the disaster experiences that some of the southeastern states, California and others have had but it's only a matter of time. We've had our share of scares about when the big one is coming. By predictions of the experts, we know it's inevitable, and we need to be prepared.
It's gratifying to see so many of you are committed to effective response and recovery. As you've heard so many times during the past few days, having a plan in place for quick, effective response and recovery will save lives. In Missouri we have been focusing our efforts on earthquake preparedness just in the last year or two. But I can assure you what we've
learned at this conference tells me that we have to do even more to develop a much better plan and get ready. We intend to do some actual exercises and work with other agencies and surrounding states. We are making good progress. We will fold in some of the principles and advice we learned from this conference to improve our preparedness even more.
Again, thanks for participating. I also want to add my thanks to the Federal Highway Administration. It's been our pleasure to be a co-host with them for the past three days. I want to especially thank Don Neumann of FHWA and Dave Musser from our organizations for the work that they've done.
Please stay in touch with those you have met here. In Hurricane Andrew video clip, they mentioned the friendships and relationships that developed and still exist today. I hope this conference has started some of those long-lasting relationship in Mid-America. Have a good trip home, wherever it is.
MR. MOSELEY: Any final comments from you, Allen?
Mr. MASUDA: I´m sure all of you have learned a lot from our speakers. I hope you take this information back to actually improve upon your emergency response plans. We have a sleeping giant under us and we can´t be caught unprepared. There is just too much at stake and the traveling public and the rest of the nation expect us to be ready. Thanks for your time and interest.
MR. MOSELEY: This was just an excellent conference and well planned. Are there any final questions or comments?
FROM THE AUDIENCE: Are transcripts that going to be distributed so we can get a copy?
MR. MASUDA: We are going to take the transcript and edit it down to proceedings. Anybody that's registered will get one as soon as we get it printed. We can put it on our web site.
FROM THE AUDIENCE: Will the transcript include the names of the presenters and participants?
MR. MASUDA: Yes, we can include them.
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