Answer: A person does not have to be an expert on the science of earthquakes to know that seismologists all over the world predict that there will be a series of earthquakes along the new Madrid Seismic Zone similar to the ones that struck this area in 1811 & 1812.

There are people today that say we should be preparing now for such an eventuality; that some of the mistakes made before and after Katrina prove that overnight rescues can be accomplished with better pre-planning.

It is a little difficult to prepare for an earthquake that may happen tomorrow, or 2000 years from now. Staggering to the imagination is to propose instant response to the thousands of places on this earth vulnerable to a disaster of some kind.

People who are so quick to criticize the recovery efforts after Katrina might be doing themselves a favor if they read one, two, or a multitude of books written about famous disasters. They would find in these accounts a commonality that is consistent and seemingly inexorable.

Since we are in the aftermath of Katrina, a suggestion would be to start at the end of any book on disasters. There you will find the investigations, the commissions, the hearings; the logical efforts to correct mistakes. There you will also find the finger pointers, the know-it-alls who have not the least idea what they might have done, but feel intrinsically that they would have done better. This, plus a suffocating political harangue that serves no purpose other than to harass, anger, and divide. Read at the end of any book on disasters.

Then advance to the middle of the book where the disaster is actually in progress. There you will find man at his best, and his worst. There will be heroism, Courage, sacrifice and charity. There also will be cowardice, futility, helplessness, hoodlumism, looting, and quite often rape and murder. Read at the middle of any book on great disasters.

Finally, you can progress to the beginning of any book on disasters where you will find man's pitiful efforts to check the colossal forces of Mother Nature. In the Sept. 13 issue of the Daily Dunklin Democrat, columnist, Diana West, identified the disaster at New Orleans as being a Category Four storm with a Category Five storm surge. The next day two levees built to withstand Category Three waters, ruinously flooding the city. She asks: "What man,` what plan, what country, copes seamlessly with that? What commission, what investigation, what hearings explain how?"

Diana West is but one woman, and she is no more omnipotent in knowledge than the finger pointers. But how consistent is her observation with the history of disasters. Man, with all his technology and expertise, is but a feeble contender in a large confrontation with Mother Nature. It is a no contest affair.

In 1931 a flood along the Huang He River in China killed 3,700,000 people. China is a civilized country. It stands to reason that there was a follow-up of investigations, accusations, finger pointing, head-rollings and political diatribes. Yet, a few years later 200,000 more people perished in a flood in North China.

We in this country have had nothing in this range as yet. But can we truthfully say that man can do much other than tokenism about a catastrophic strike of nature? How do we plan, for instance, for the mile-wide asteroid that cosmologists say will eventually smack us right in the face.

It would appear that now is the time to quit pulling ourselves apart and start pulling together. There are political and cultural issues than can be and should be challenged. But can't we at least agree that Mother Nature is a "mean momma," that for the time being has us outclassed.

Mistakes made before disasters, during disasters, and after disasters, are consistent with disasters.

The Answer Man will appear on occasion in the Daily Dunklin Democrat, and will provide answers to various and sundry questions about local people, etc. Readers are invited to submit their queries to The Answer Man by e-mailing them to bhunt@dddnews.com.