Earthquake Preparedness and Disaster Management

You need to investigate if you live near active fault lines. For example, California Earthquakes are expected to be generated mainly from San Andreas Fault or Hayward Fault, while the New Madrid Fault System and the Wabash Valley Fault System are the major earthquake sources in the Midwestern States. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is publishing updated research results on earthquake prediction in California and the Midwest. The USGS website has detailed earthquake information by state and by country/region. The picture shows major active fault lines in California, any of which can generate an earthquake magnitude of 6.7 similar to Northridge Earthquake. The USGS predicts a 99.7% chance of having an 6.7 magnitude during the next 30 years. The southern segment of San Andreas Fault has a 67% chance of striking the Greater Los Angeles Area, while Hayward Fault has a 63% chance of striking the San Francisco Bay Area.

Earthquakes are associated with back- and forth- ground shaking and soil liquefaction which are the main reason for earthquake damage to buildings. Other earthquake hazards that may affect your home safety include landslides, surface fault rupture, fires, and tsunamis for major earthquakes that displace the ocean floor. Liquefaction occurs for sandy soils or poorly-compacted artificial fill with high ground water table when strong ground shaking occurs, where the soil loses its ability to support the concrete foundations. Areas prone to liquefaction in California include San Francisco Bay Area, Northwestern Alameda County, Northern Santa Clara Valley, Southern Coachella Valley, and Upper Santa Ana River Basin. Liquefaction also occurs in the Midwest within the Central Mississippi River Valley (including the Reelfoot Scarp, the New Madrid Seismic Zone and the Western Lowlands) and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers Regions (including the Wabash Valley and St. Louis-Cape Girardeau). The earthquake picture illustrates the permanent ground settlement due to liquefaction along the perimeter of Port Island (artificial fill) during the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, where the shore line moved 6 to 9 ft outward into the sea and settled as much as 3 ft.

Structural damage to you home is influenced by building materials, home foundations, soft story, unbraced crawl space, year built, and number of stories. Older construction materials including unreinforced masonry and non-ductile reinforced concrete have a poor performance during major earthquakes and may be heavily damaged leading to a structural failure and collapse, if not retrofitted. However, wood frame construction, ductile reinforced concrete construction, and steel frame construction generally perform better and are less likely to be damaged. Recent earthquakes demonstrate that most structural failures occur if homes are not effectively bolted to the foundation, the cripple walls are not reinforced or braced, or the existence of a soft story in houses with large openings at the first level such as garage doors or windows without effective bracing. Understanding the potential earthquake damage to your home to your home would help you decide on seismic retrofitting its structural components. The earthquake picture shows a wooden house that leaned during Kobe Earthquake where the first level was unbraced and structurally weak.

These are measures to ensure the structural integrity of your home to withstand earthquakes with little structural damage. It is necessary to seismic retrofit your home if you live within 15-25 miles from active fault lines or within regions highly susceptible to liquefaction. Earthquake retrofit will ensure life safety and help in returning your family much more quickly back to their normal life style. If you live within 25-50 miles from active fault lines and your home is constructed before the 1980's, you probably need to retrofit it. However, that may be addressed one step at a time as follows:

Step #1: The best return on the investment of seismic retrofitting efforts is to initially address the home foundations by upgrading the anchor bolts to ¾ inch diameter spaced at a maximum of 4 feet with the edge bolt placed at 1 foot from the board. Large and thick square washers shall be used to secure the anchorage of the sill plate to the concrete foundation. Replacing and adding anchor bolts to unsecured home foundations is one of the most important steps toward earthquake safety. This upgrade costs $250 to $5,000 as compared to $25,000 to repair the concrete foundation from earthquake damage, which may require lifting the house, then placing it back on its repaired concrete foundation.

Step #2: Bracing the cripple walls by using a minimum of 3/8 inch structural grade plywood panels on the inside surface of the crawl space extending from the sill plate to the base of the floor joist and adequately nailing them to the studs. The cost is $500 to $2,500 but may cost up to $25,000 to repair after a major earthquake.

Step #3: Bracing the walls of the soft story using steel members or strengthening the walls using specially-detailed plywood panels. The cost may exceed $5,000 but worth it as numerous buildings (regardless construction material type and year built) were severely damaged and leaned leading to structural failure during 1994 Northridge Earthquake and 1995 Kobe Earthquake, as a result of the soft story in the first floor.

Step #4: Anchoring the connections of walls and masonry chimney using metal straps to the structural members of the floors and roof. The cost range $2,000 to $12,000.

Step #5: Retrofitting inadequate major renovations that occurred in the past such as additional stories, replacement of large portions of walls with windows or doors, added large skylights, opened large portions of existing floors, or additions that created an L-shape configuration.

Those earthquake mitigation measures are simple techniques to secure the contents of your home to the studs of the interior walls or floors using inexpensive hardware tools and materials found in hardware stores. Items in the garage shall also be secured to reduce damage to vehicles. Such self-mitigation techniques can be undertaken by homeowners as they are simple to explain and require no special expertise, materials or tools to implement. You should mitigate the contents of your home whether you seismic retrofit it or not, because a study from the University of California in Los Angeles demonstrated that 55% of the injuries during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake were caused by falling furniture or objects while only 1% of injuries were caused by structural damage, and other injuries were due to people falling or behaving dangerously! The study stated that many of these injuries could have been prevented through simple actions taken before the earthquake. Therefore, you should secure anything in your home that is tall and heavy enough to hurt if it falls on you using special furniture straps such as earthquake straps or nylon straps. Secure also fragile and expensive objects enough to be a significant loss if they fall using removable non-damaging adhesives such as Quake Hold or Museum Wax. In addition, secure gas appliances (water heaters, dryers, stoves, ovens, furnaces) with anchors to the floor or wall studs and replace rigid pipes connections with flexible (corrugated) stainless-steel gas connectors, because one in four fires after an earthquake is related to natural gas leaks. Finally, water heaters are of special concern and should be braced to the wall studs or masonry wall with two heavy-gauge metal straps (plumber's tape is no longer recommended) and lag screws near the top and bottom of the tank. Such bracing would cost $20 to $200 but will save several thousand dollars in repairing fire damage or flood damage, because unsecured water heaters often fall over during earthquakes, rupturing rigid water and gas connections.

If you own your home, it is probably your biggest financial asset. You have worked hard to secure your piece of the American Dream to become a homeowner. Your assets and investments made in personal belongings may be at risk when an earthquake strikes as your home will have some level of structural damage. You may wrongly believe that the United States Government will take care of all your financial needs if you suffer losses in an earthquake which is not true (remember Hurricane Katrina). In fact, the federal disaster relief programs are designed to help you get partly back on your feet but not to replace everything you lose. In the meantime, homeowners insurance does not cover earthquake damage to your home, home contents, or personal belongings. Home owners insurance covers other kinds of damage that may result from earthquakes, such as fire and water damage due to burst gas and water pipes. Your vehicles are only covered under the comprehensive part of your auto insurance policy. Therefore, most of the property damage caused by an earthquake will end up being handled and paid for by you. In addition, you are still responsible for your existing personal debt such as mortgage, auto loans, and credit card payments even if your home is destroyed or partially damaged. How do you plan to protect your assets and investments from the costs of destructive earthquakes?

Earthquake insurance which should include contents insurance is an option for effectively managing these potential costs. Answer the following questions to help you decide if earthquake insurance is right for you:

1) How much would it cost to repair/rebuild your home?
2) Can you afford paying the mortgage while also paying to repair/rebuild your home?
3) Can you afford losing your home equity?
4) How much would it cost to replace your household expensive possessions (furniture, computers, HDTV's, refrigerators, etc) if destroyed?
5) How much would temporary accommodations cost if you cannot live in your home after an earthquake?

The states of California, Washington, Missouri, Tennessee, Oregon, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, Florida, and Indiana are the top 10 largest markets for earthquake insurance coverage. Earthquake insurance premiums differ widely by location, insurance company, and the construction material of your home. Older buildings cost more to insure than newer ones. Wood frame construction benefit from lower rates than unreinforced masonry homes. For example, a wood frame house in the Pacific Northwest costs $1-3 per $1,000 worth of coverage but less than $0.50 on the East Coast, while an unreinforced masonry home costs $3-15 per $1,000 in the Pacific Northwest but $0.60-0.90 in New York.

It is surprising to know that only 12% of California residents currently have California earthquake insurance down from 33% in 1996 when the devastating 1994 Northridge Earthquake was still fresh in people's minds. On the other hand, 35% of Missouri homes have earthquake insurance coverage which seems reasonable. Recent earthquakes in Haiti and Japan serve as a wake up calls that may influence people decision to reconsider buying earthquake insurance.

Emergency preparedness is to know how to setup your own disaster planning before an earthquake that may be followed by a tsunami hits your area. This disaster plan shall include the following:

Survival Kits
For each household member, keep one earthquake survival kit at home, another in the car and a third at work/school. Earthquake kits are collection of first aid supplies and other survival products that shall include: flashlight, whistle, dust mask, sturdy shoes, bottled water, snack foods, hygiene supplies, toiletries, emergency contact, emergency cash, road maps, extra cell phone battery and charger, medications and prescriptions list, spare eyeglasses or contact lenses and cleaning solutions, games, crayons, and writing materials. 72 hour kits are available online for adults and children that meet the recommendations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Emergency Kit
Store your household emergency kit inside a large watertight container in an easily accessible outdoor location other than the garage. This emergency preparedness kit should hold two weeks of emergency supplies including: first aid kits, cooking utensils, charcoal or gas grill, flashlight, wrench and basic hardware tools, work gloves, protective goggles, heavy-duty plastic bags, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, comfortable warm clothing, baby items, blankets, sleeping bags or even a tent, and a portable battery-operated radio.

Survival Food and Emergency Drinking Water
You should maintain emergency food and water for at least 2 weeks at all times in your household emergency kit. A minimum of one gallon per household member per day of emergency drinking water is essential and the survival food shall be canned and packaged.

Emergency Training
Take the Red Cross first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) emergency training course. If you live in California, you should register at http://www.shakeout.org/ to participate in the annual Great California ShakeOut Earthquake Drill. Join millions of Californians who will participate on October 20, 2011 at 10:20 a.m.

Earthquake Survival and Disaster Recovery
What to do during and after an earthquake? You should drop, cover, and hold on under a sturdy desk or table when the earthquake shaking starts. Protect your head and neck with your arms avoiding exterior walls, windows, hanging objects, mirrors, tall furniture, large appliances, and cabinets filled with heavy objects. Do not go outside until the shaking completely stops and never use elevators. If you are driving, avoid overpasses, bridges, buildings, power lines, signs, trees, and other hazards. If you are near the shore, evacuate immediately to higher ground if you hear a tsunami warning.
Immediately after the earthquake shaking stops, check yourself then other family members for injuries. Check for hazards inside and outside your home especially fires, gas leaks, damaged electrical wiring, downed utility lines, spills of potentially harmful materials such as bleach, garden chemicals, paint, and gasoline. Shut off the main gas valve only if you suspect a leak by turning it counter-clockwise using a manual wrench. File a claim as soon as possible to your earthquake insurance company describing the structural damage and/or contents damage. Only if your home is seriously damaged or has a structural failure, evacuate immediately to a shelter with your survival kits, household emergency kit, survival food, and emergency drinking water. Contact FEMA to find out about financial assistance and disaster relief.

Disaster Alert
This is a free application available to Android-based and Apple-based mobile device users. It is published by the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) that makes information on worldwide hazards and disasters. You can view PDC active hazards on an interactive map or in a list format, and to click through for more details. Active hazards are updated every five minutes providing real-time data events on 12 different types of hazard: Drought, Earthquake, Flood, High Surf (Hawaii), High Wind (Hawaii), Man Made, Marine, Storm, Cyclone, Tsunami, Volcano and Wildfire. The events in the system have been designated as potentially hazardous to people, property, or assets. The data is compiled from authoritative sources, including the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA's: National Weather Service, Tropical Prediction Center, National Hurricane Center, and Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, as well as the Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center, Joint Typhoon Warning Center, U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center and Volcano Hazards Program, and the Global Volcanism Program at the Smithsonian Institution. Get Disaster Alert at http://market.android.com/details?id=disasterAlert.PDC

Emergency Radio
An alternative to "Disaster Alert" would be an emergency radio such as the NOAA weather radio.