Page 5 - Yucaipa Valley Water District

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

With a $2.4 trillion gross domestic product, a population of nearly 40 million and a rich diversity of
lucrative industries, California boasts the sixth largest economy on the planet. It is also a region famous
for its earthquakes, with the risk of experiencing widespread economic and social devastation at any
moment. The best way to guard against that threat is to prepare for it – making our cities safer by
identifying and retrofitting our vulnerable structures.
Hurricane Katrina, so far, represents the nation’s most devastating natural disaster. Yet the U.S.
Geological Survey estimates that an even bigger event – a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Southern
California – would result in more than 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries and $200 billion in damage, with
long-lasting social and economic impacts. According to the USGS, the odds are stacked against California
in terms of a major earthquake striking within the next 30 years: 99 percent for a magnitude 6.7
temblor, and 46 percent for a magnitude 7.5 quake.

The displacement of potentially tens of thousands of residents can have a devastating impact on a
society, its housing market and its broad economic stability. This situation is further complicated when
the homes lost reflect a large proportion of a community’s affordable housing stock. People without
homes have a harder time reporting for work and that can hamper business activity. The potential
impacts on small business, which employs 56.8 million people representing 48 percent of the U.S.
workforce, is particularly troublesome when considering that many of these enterprises occupy the very
buildings that are at risk of failure during an earthquake.

Safety is of course the primary concern. However, there are real financial considerations affecting
building owners. Legal precedent now places liability on building owners, as in the case of an
unreinforced masonry building in Paso Robles where the courts found the owners liable for the deaths
of two occupants (even though the building technically complied with the city’s retrofit ordinance).
Other lawsuits stemming from the collapse of balconies and decks also show that building owners may
be held responsible for a structure’s safety even if local jurisdictions have not passed specific ordinances
requiring mitigation of unsafe conditions. The simple fact of knowing a building may be unsafe and not
taking action may be grounds enough to assign blame through negligence.

The urgency to address these concerns has prompted a new movement called the Seismic Resilience
Initiative, (SRI). This working group, led by the United States Resiliency Council, includes BizFed, Local
California Building Department Leaders, the Structural Engineers Association of California and others,
and is receiving technical assistance from the California Seismic Safety Commission, California Office of
Emergency Services, the California Department of Insurance and the International Code Council. Its
mission is to promote statewide regulations that will identify buildings that are known to present a
heightened seismic risk of death, injury and damage based on their age, structural system, size and
location.

Both the State of California Seismic Safety Commission and the Structural Engineers Association of
California agree that California must improve the performance of our built environment through
resilience-based design and seismic retrofits.

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Yucaipa Valley Water District - March 8, 2018 - Page 5 of 40