White House Author

Brian Blake serves as Earthquake Program Coordinator with the Central U.S Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), which was established under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. Since its inception, CUSEC’s mission has been “…the reduction of deaths, injuries, property damage and economic losses resulting from earthquakes in the central United States”. Brian’s primary role is to coordinate activities related to earthquake preparedness and mitigation in the eight member states and ten associate states of CUSEC. This involves working with local, state, and federal partners to create and implement programs which help communities prepare for, respond to, and mitigate against the effects of earthquakes. Brian has worked on several multi-year earthquake planning and outreach projects including the New Madrid Seismic Zone Catastrophic Planning Initiative, the New Madrid Bicentennial, and most recently, the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut. The ShakeOut is an annual, multi-state public outreach campaign that involves millions of people who engage in earthquake safety activities. In 2011, more than three-million people across eleven states participated in the ShakeOut. This program encourages participants to take specific actions to become more informed and better prepared for earthquakes and other disasters.