Town 'owed a debt' to Browning

By The Associated Press

NEW MADRID, Mo. - Iben Browning may be gone, but he will not soon be forgotten by this small southeastern Missouri community that he almost singlehandedly made famous.

Browning, who gained the nation's attention last year when he projected a major earthquake would hit the New Madrid Fault, died Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M., of a heart attack. He was 73.

Iben Browning "We owe him a debt of gratitude," New Madrid Mayor Dick Phillips said Friday. "I respected the man's intelligence. In this particular case, thank God, his prediction didn't come to pass, but it made us realize that we had never made any kind of preparations for a natural disaster. We owe him for that. "

1990 Video - Iben, Dr. Stewart

Browning had said there was an even-odds chance that a big quake would strike the fault, which runs through parts of Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, last December.

Many residents along the fault left the area during the week that Browning projected the quake would hit, while others stockpiled food and supplies. Some schools canceled classes.

Law enforcement officers and rescue officials set up emergency headquarters and participated in mock rescues in anticipation of the quake that never happened.

The town was inundated by the news media and the joke made the rounds that the greatest danger residents faced was being run over by a television truck.

Browning was highly criticized by the experts who said there was no scientific basis to his prediction.

Many residents enjoyed the notoriety, however, and no one could deny that it had turned New Madrid, at least briefly, into a boomtown.

Albuquerque consultant Nelson Winkless said he hoped his longtime friend and associate wouldn't be remembered solely for the forecast of the New Madrid temblor that never happened.

"He did a zillion things," Winkless said of Browning, who had worked in such diverse fields as artificial intelligence and bioengineering, and who held dozens of patents.

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