rural area with virginia. you re actually right. these older buildings are the ones we re particularly concerned about. in fact, building codes for modern buildings, they build into that the seismic provisions from our national seismic hazard map. we recognize that earthquakes are a national hazard, that you can have damaging earthquakes in the central and eastern u.s. but, you know, these 19th century buildings that are unreinforced brick come down quite easily. even if the building itself doesn t come down, you can have failure of chimneys, get a lot of has we call non-structure damage. so the building itself is fine, but you could have bookcases falling over, light fixtures. that s why the red cross, i mentioned in your previous government, drop, cover, hold on. get under something sturdy. odds are your building may be okay but you can still be injured by falling debris. david applegate, who fought through the traffic to get on
collapses, but you can get a lot of damage just caused by what we would say nonstructural damage, bookcases falling over, light fixtures fallings. and we re seeing lots of small damage. our initial estimate is very low probability for fatalities, but in terms of economic losses, it could add up. unbelievable. it is, i guess comforting to know even you folks at the geological survey weren t sure in the nanoseconds. david applegate, thanks so much. i want to bring in tom costello. they really took some hits, didn t they, tom? reporter: this is a beautiful little town in the middle of
collapse. but you can get a lot of damage just caused by what we call nonstruck occural damage. bookcases falling over, light fixturing falling and we re seeing lots of small damage. our initial estimate is, you know, very low probability of fatalities but in terms of economic losses it could add up. we re estimating the economic losses could be on the order of $100 million or more than that. unbelievable. it is, i guess, a little bit comforting to know even you folks at the u.s. geological survey were not is your in the initial nano seconds what this was. david applegate, good to of you to make your way to our cameras. thanks so much. my pleasure. lets get out to a small town in virginia. it looks beautiful behind you right now but they took some hitting, didn t they, tom? reporter: this is a beautiful