Page 11 - Yucaipa Valley Water District

are laws and/or policies that are aimed at reducing damage to the private sector and accelerating post-
earthquake economic recovery.” The commission added that:

It is imperative that appropriate policies be adopted and implemented so that California's
businesses and industries … can recover rapidly from any damage they may incur as a
result of the next major earthquake. The failure to do so can result in California's economy
taking a severe blow, both due to small businesses not being able to recover and
reestablish themselves and by larger companies relocating to other states or even
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countries which are constantly attempting to lure them away.

A lot has been learned from earthquake
1
HAZUS Annualized Earthquake Loss (AEL)
models since the Northridge quake. We
Rank Region AEL in millions now understand much more about
1 Los Angeles $1,312.3 seismicity, ground motion and

2 San Francisco $781.0 engineering, and these advances in
technology have allowed us to identify
3 Riverside/San Bernardino $396.5
threats based not only on geography –
4 San Jose $276.7 i.e., proximity to fault lines and soil

5 Seattle $243.9 composition – but also by building
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6 San Diego $155.2 characteristics.
7 Portland $137.1 The Federal Emergency Management
8 Oxnard $111.0 Agency has adopted Geographic
Information System (GIS) technology to
9 Santa Rosa/Petaluma $68.6
estimate physical, economic and social
10 St. Louis, MO $58.5 impacts of disasters such as
earthquakes. This nationally applied
standard, called HAZUS, has put Los Angeles at the top of the list for annualized earthquake damage
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from an earthquake. These calculations are based on seismic hazard, the likelihood of damage to
buildings and other structures and direct and indirect losses resulting from this damage.

Seismic retrofitting of vulnerable structures is critical to reducing risk, a Federal Emergency
xiv
Management Agency study found.

“It’s important for protecting the lives and assets of building occupants and the continuity of their
work,” FEMA reported. “On the whole, communities with more retrofitted structures can recover from
earthquakes more rapidly.”
It’s not just a matter of saving lives, guarding against injury and preserving property. In instances where
an earthquake of significant magnitude causes widespread damage to buildings, the federal agency
found, retrofits can protect against economic devastation as well.

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Yucaipa Valley Water District - March 8, 2018 - Page 11 of 40