Page 13 - Yucaipa Valley Water District

It’s not just small businesses that are at risk. Following
the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, several
automobile manufacturers had to cease production.
Toyota lost its supplier of brake parts and radios,
In Their Words resulting in the loss of production of some 20,000
vehicles.

The Malaysian automobile manufacturer Proton had to
halt operations for some time because the parts the
“These earthquakes provide
company was receiving from Mitsubishi Motors could
inescapable evidence that California
must continue to prepare for major not be shipped from the damaged Kobe Port. In the
seismic events to strike.” United States, Chrysler Motors came very close to
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having to suspend operations.
State of California
Seismic Safety Commission Recovery of the greater Kobe region since then was
“Improved performance of our devastatingly slow. Thirteen years later, shoe
community’s and region’s built production – a major industry in the region – was at
environment is critically important to just 78.8 percent of what it was prior to the
saving lives as well as important to earthquake.

protecting its economy, character and
fabric.” Likewise, Japan’s robust industry for sake plummeted.
Shipping figures in 2008 for the country’s popular rice
Structural Engineers Association of brew were just 40 percent of what they once were.
Southern California
Damage to the port facilities resulted in shipping traffic
“If you live or work in retrofitted being diverted to other ports in the region.
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structures, you’re less likely to be
injured during an earthquake. After Loss of Local and Affordable Housing Stock
the earthquake, you’re also more
likely to have a home and a job to The bulk of our vulnerable buildings are represented by
older structures that make up a disproportionately
which you can quickly return.
Businesses that use retrofitted broad swath of our state’s more affordable housing
buildings are more likely to survive stock. Housing affordability today is a critical problem
damaging earthquakes and to sustain in California, which ranks as the second most expensive
shorter business interruptions and state in the nation, behind Hawaii. Rents in Orange
fewer inventory losses.” County represent 54 percent of the average tenant’s

Federal Emergency Management Agency income, meaning that a single renter would need
(FEMA) almost two full-time jobs to afford a typical two-
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bedroom apartment. Elsewhere in urban areas of the
state, the situation is virtually the same.

The Journal of Public Economics found that major earthquakes have a disproportionate impact on
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people of lower-economic demographics. Researchers Nejat Anbarci, Monica Escaleras and Charles
Register found strong correlations between wealth and resiliency, citing the discrepancy as a matter of
social justice. The researchers called on government to help ensure a more even application of building
safety codes and retrofits: “The ultimate lesson therefore is that building and development is simply not
a physical process – government institutions and social processes must develop in parallel, to keep up

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Yucaipa Valley Water District - March 8, 2018 - Page 13 of 40