Preparing for and Responding to Earthquakes
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Introduction
Though somewhat predictable, earthquakes are often surprise disasters that can have devastating impacts on historic resources, particularly unreinforced masonry buildings. Although earthquakes cannot be avoided, thorough planning and intelligent engineering can often prevent structures from succumbing to the immense physical strains and trauma they induce. This document is a compilation of earthquake preparedness resources that may help building owners reduce the potential impacts of these traumas on their property.
The most critical resources relating to this topic are marked below with a check.
Critical Organizations
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC)
- Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)
Earthquake Preparation Resources
- Preservation Brief 41: The Seismic Retrofit of Historic Buildings (National Park Service, 1997)
- Controlling Disaster: Earthquake-Hazard Reduction for Historic Resources (National Trust for Historic Preservation).
- Unreinforced Masonry Building Fact Sheet, (Northern California Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute).
- An Action Plan for Reducing Earthquake Hazards of Existing Building, (FEMA 90, December 1985, hard copy only)
- Earthquake Safety Guide for Homeowners (FEMA 530, FEMA/California Seismic Safety, 2005)
- Bricks, Mortar, and Earthquakes; Historic Preservation vs. Earthquake Safety (APT Bulletin, vol. 21, Nos. 3/4, pgs. 30-43, 1989)
- Preparing To Preserve: An Action Plan to Integrate Historic Preservation into Tribal, State, and Local Emergency Management Plans
- Preparing to Preserve: Emergency Planning Model Checklist for Historic Preservation (Heritage Preservation) is a handy checklist for your community.
- Incentives for Retrofitting Vulnerable Privately-Owned Buildings (EERI/San Francisco)
- Building Occupancy Resumption Program (San Francisco/EERI) allows building owners to pre-certify private post-earthquake inspection of their buildings by qualified engineers upon building department acceptance of a written inspection program.
- Glossary of Earthquake and Seismic Retrofit Terms and Acronyms (Seismic Retrofit of Historic Buildings Workshop, Association for Preservation Technology International, October 7-9, 2001, Asilimar Conference Center, Monterey Peninsula, California)
- Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country: San Francisco Bay Region (USGS, 2007)
