Published: January 27, 2010 12:01 pm      

Letter: Empty downtown space could help disaster victims

To the editor:

In the wake of the disaster in Haiti, I was thinking about all those buildings around the (McLeansboro) square that have second floors all vacant with plenty of square footage and if they could be prepared for victims of catastrophes such as earthquakes. We are not far from the New Madrid Fault in southeastern Missouri.

Seeing victims in Haiti lying in the streets, dead and alive, it occurred to me about all that square footage around the square and in other towns in Southern Illinois, and elsewhere in America, to prepare that empty space, just in case.

Of course, I am supposing those empty buildings will still be standing in the event of an earthquake!

Helen Sue Johnson

Mt. Vernon