As America turns 250, we’re reminded that preparedness isn’t just for “some other place”

On June 24, 2026, Venezuela was hit by a rare “doublet,” two massive quakes, magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, just 39 seconds apart near San Felipe, Yaracuy. The second was Venezuela’s strongest in more than a century. Buildings pancaked, roads split, and as of this week thousands of people are dead, many more injured, and over 50,000 reported missing. Aftershocks, including a 4.9 just days later, keep rattling Caracas.

It’s hard to watch and not think: Could that happen here?

Venezuela sits on the Caribbean-South American plate boundary, a complex zone of strike-slip faults including the Boconó-Morón-El Pilar fault system. The “doublet” nature made it worse, two big ruptures back-to-back extended shaking time and damage over a wider area. Combine that with fragile infrastructure after years of economic strain, older buildings not built to modern codes, and limited rescue capacity, and you get a disaster that tests a nation to its core.

Could a “Venezuela-size” quake happen here?

Yes, but where depends on the fault. The U.S. has about 2,000 known Quaternary faults capable of M6+ quakes, and 45 states + territories face moderate to very high risk.

California sits on the San Andreas/San Jacinto fault system, sliding past the North American Plate just like Venezuela’s plates grind sideways. Stress there is at 1,000-year highs in spots like Cajon Pass. A joint rupture could hit M7.4-7.8. The Hayward Fault near the Bay Area has a 14.3% chance of M6.7+ in the next 30 years.

We don’t have a San Andreas, but we do have the New Madrid Seismic Zone and faults in Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee. The 1886 Charleston quake was M7. The 2011 Virginia M5.8 was felt by more people than any quake in North America because East Coast rock transmits shaking farther. USGS says damaging quakes “do not strike the eastern U.S. often, but… there is a small chance it could happen at any time”.

West Virginia Quakes are rare and usually 2.5 magnitude. But USGS notes it’s “not outside the realm of possibility for a larger scale earthquake”. We’re far from plate boundaries, yet stress can build on smaller, ancient faults we can’t even map.

Scientists can’t predict earthquakes. But probability models help. The 2023 USGS forecast gives time-averaged estimates for damaging quakes across the country.

The lesson from Venezuela is about readiness, not luck.

Experts point out Venezuela once had strong building codes and disaster plans, but economic decline hurt enforcement. California, by contrast, is planning — San Francisco just proposed a $535 million quake safety bond. Preparedness works.

For us in Wetzel and Tyler County, risk is low. But low risk isn’t no risk. West Virginia Emergency Management and WVU Extension say the same things that save lives in California (Awareness) can save lives here.

Venezuela’s tragedy is a reminder that the ground we stand on is always moving, even if we don’t feel it. We can’t stop quakes. But we can decide, today, to be the kind of people who are ready, for our neighbors, for our kids, for whatever comes.

Because when the earth shakes, what holds us up isn’t just concrete and steel. It’s each other.