California Geological Survey – “Probabilistic Tsunami Modeling and Public Pol...
“Children have the right to be safe in school buildings during earthquakes” - John Schelling
1. “Children have
the right to be
safe in school
buildings during
earthquakes”
-Western States
Seismic Policy
Council (WSSPC)
2. Why Assess School Buildings?
• Do YOU know how many schools in Washington State are
vulnerable to extensive damage or even collapse in an
earthquake?
• Do YOU know how many kids are at risk in these buildings?
• Do YOU know which school districts have retrofitted some
or all their buildings?
• Well, you might be surprised to know that neither
does anyone else.
• With a critical shortfall of already scarce financial resources
(e.g.. Trust lands funding) available to build or retrofit, how
can state & local decision makers best prioritize actions and
know where to put these resources?
3. Washington Schools have been
Damaged in Earthquakes
1949, a large earthquake collapsed the
gymnasium roof at Puyallup High School.
The earthquake occurred at 11:58 a.m., and
the gym had just been vacated by students
for lunch.
At Castle Rock High School, however, falling
masonry killed the student body president
as he tried to escape from the building .
Another student was killed by falling bricks
at Lowell Grammar School in Tacoma
In all, thirty schools were damaged in this Nisqually-
type earthquake
4. School Seismic Needs Assessment
• Pilot Project in the Cities of Walla
Walla and Aberdeen
• Leverage volunteer expertise
from Structural Engineering
Aberdeen
Association of Washington
(SEAW) and Washington
Association of Building Officials
(WABO).
• Project used ASCE 31: Evaluation
of Existing Buildings for structural
assessment, VS-30 data for local
geology assessment, and HAZUS
for modeling of potential losses
• Intent was to develop a method
that can be used statewide to
assess all school buildings for
seismic safety.
5. Selection Process
1) Our initial screening was to consider school districts that
had high earthquake hazard. We mapped schools on a
combination of the seismic design category map and
liquefaction susceptibility maps.
2) School districts in both eastern and western Washington
that scored high in criterion 1 were plotted.
3) The number of schools per district were considered, both
to equalize each district and to select a number of school
buildings that could be evaluated with the available
resources.
4) A representative of the Office of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction then contacted a select number of
school districts to determine their willingness to
participate.
6. Note: The seismic design category combines an
estimate of the strength of ground shaking at any
individual site with the amplification caused by the
local geology.
11. Ten Resilience Recommendations:
1. Make schools resilient: structurally, socially, and
educationally.
2. Require that utility providers identify the vulnerabilities
in their systems and mitigate the deficiencies.
3. Improve the resilience of buildings in areas of high
seismic hazard to improve life safety and increase the
number of people who will be able to shelter in place.
4. Assess the permitting requirements that relate to
environmental protection and mitigation to determine
how best to make environmental planning mesh with
seismic mitigation and recovery planning.
5. Strengthen business continuity planning
efforts.
12. OSPI Mitigation Planning
Project
• Completing an all-hazard mitigation planning project
in collaboration with multiple districts across the
state.
• Using FEMA 154 to assess schools in planning
partner districts to complete an initial screen
• Using Washington State Seismic Safety Committee
Pilot Project methodology as a follow-up for poorly
scored buildings
13. Seismic Safety Committee
James Mullen, Washington State Emergency Management Division, Co-Chair
Dave Norman,* Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Co-Chair
Stacy Bartoletti,* Structural Engineers Association of Washington, RWS Chair
Tamra Biasco,* Federal Emergency Management Agency
Steve Boyer, Hill and Knowlton, Private Industry Representative
Tom Hill, Washington Association of Building Officials
Sheryl Jardine, Washington State Emergency Management
Scott Miles,* Resilience Institute, Western Washington University
Pat Morin, Washington State Department of Transportation
Bill Perkins, American Society of Civil Engineers
John Schelling,* Washington State Emergency Management Division
Barbara Thurman, Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction
John Vidale, State Seismologist, University of Washington
Tim Walsh,* Washington State Department of Natural Resources
Craig Weaver, United States Geological Survey
Writing & RWS Project support provided by Dr. Kyra L. Nourse.
* DENOTES RWS SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBER
15. Next Steps
• Final report has been briefed to local jurisdictions & school
districts and publicly released.
• Aberdeen and Walla Walla are using the information in their
local strategic planning processes.
– Aberdeen submitted a letter of intent for HMGP funds to
retrofit deficient buildings
• OSPI may resubmit a decision package for long-term funding
and will engage in a conversation about how to potentially
rebudget existing resources to support this effort.
• In any case, it will be important to have some level of
engagement at OSPI to track results that are completed
outside of a state-led effort.