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Seismic Waves: New Help for States Most at Risk
Seismic Waves is a newsletter published by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. "Through its participation in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plays a leading role in disseminating and implementing earthquake risk reduction knowledge and strategies cultivated by NEHRP and others. To carry out this work, the agency collaborates with many partners, none more important than state governments. This year FEMA reestablished a dedicated program designed to strengthen its partnerships with state earthquake programs. The Earthquake Hazards Reduction State Assistance Program is one part of FEMA's activities under the NEHRP Reauthorization Act of 2004, which directs the agency to support state efforts to mitigate seismic risks and thereby reduce future losses from earthquakes. FEMA will be providing program funds annually to states and U.S. territories that face serious earthquake hazards and that develop ways to effectively reduce risks posed by these hazards. Recipients can use program funds for a range of eligible activities, including 1. assessing needs for mitigation by delineating the seismic threats that are faced, their potential impacts on people and property, and the vulnerability of critical structures and lifelines; 2. developing plans for mitigating existing vulnerabilities; 3. updating building codes, zoning codes, and ordinances to enhance earthquake safety and resilience and to reduce the propagation of new vulnerabilities; and 4. strengthening public awareness of earthquake risks to promote support for and engagement in mitigation and preparedness efforts. Program funds are intended to supplement and leverage states' existing support for such activities."
National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-12
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Homeowner's Guide to Retrofitting: Six Ways to Protect Your Home From Flooding
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has prepared this guide specifically for homeowners who want to know how to protect their homes from flooding. As a homeowner, you need clear information about the options available to you and straightforward guidance that will help you make decisions. This guide gives you both, in a form designed for readers who have little or no experience with flood protection methods or building construction techniques. [...].You should take steps to protect your home if it has been damaged by flooding or is in an area where flooding is likely to occur. But first, you need to know what methods are available, how they work, how much they may cost, and whether they will meet your specific needs. This guide covers all of those issues. It also explains flood hazards and how they can damage your home. Don't forget that flooding is only one of several natural hazards that may threaten your home. This guide includes maps that will help you determine whether your home is in an area where earthquakes or high winds occur, and it also explains when your retrofitting project should in¬clude protection against these hazards."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2009-12
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Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate: H.R. 3820, Natural Hazards Risk Reduction Act of 2009
From the Summary: "H.R. 3820 would reauthorize federal programs aimed at developing methods to reduce damages caused by earthquakes and windstorms. The bill also would reauthorize several committees that advise federal agencies on implementing those programs. Assuming appropriation of the authorized and necessary amounts, CBO [Congressional Budget Office] estimates that implementing the legislation would cost $747 million over the 2010-2014 period and $125 million after 2014. Enacting H.R. 3820 would not affect direct spending or revenues. H.R. 3820 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or local governments."
United States. Congressional Budget Office
2009-11-10
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Earthquake/Tsunami/Flooding on American Samoa and Typhoon Melor on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands September 29 -- October 3, 2009: After Action Report (AAR), Emergency Support Function 11
This document summarizes strengths and weaknesses in the emergency support function 11 response to the American Samoa Tsunami from September 29 to October 3, 2009. Emergency support function 11 provides nutrition assistance and food security for people in affected areas and controls any outbreak of a highly contagious or economically devastating animal/zoonotic disease, highly infectious exotic plant disease, or economically devastating plant pest infestation.
United States. Department of the Interior; United States. Department of Agriculture
2009-11-06?
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Emergency Relief Manual (Federal-Aid Highways) November 2009
"This manual is an update of the Emergency Relief Manual, Interim Update August 2003. It provides updated guidance and instructions on the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) emergency relief (ER) program. This manual provides information for FHWA, State, and local transportation agency personnel on policies and procedures for requesting, obtaining and administering ER funds. This manual covers only those criteria and procedures applicable to the ER program for Federal-aid highways, these being public highways other than those functionally classified as local roads or rural minor collectors. Procedures relating to the ER program for roads on Federal lands that are not Federal-aid highways are outlined in Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads (ERFO) Disaster Assistance Manual, Publication Number FHWA-FLH-04-007. […]. Congress authorized in Title 23, United States Code, Section 125, a special program from the Highway Trust Fund for the repair or reconstruction of Federal-aid highways and roads on Federal lands which have suffered serious damage as a result of (1) natural disasters or (2) catastrophic failures from an external cause. This program, commonly referred to as the emergency relief or ER program, supplements the commitment of resources by States, their political subdivisions, or other Federal agencies to help pay for unusually heavy expenses resulting from extraordinary conditions. Examples of natural disasters include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, tidal waves, severe storms, and landslides. A catastrophic failure is defined as the sudden and complete failure of a major element or segment of the highway system that causes a disastrous impact on transportation services."
United States. Federal Highway Administration
2009-11
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Volpe Center Highlights [November 2009]
This issue of Volpe Center "Highlights" includes the following sections: public Safety Partnership tested by Exercise Tremor; Massport Pioneers Vessel-Monitoring System for Air Traffic Controllers; and Modernization of Avionics Focus of IEEE [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers] Conference. Exercise Tremor was an emergency management exercise, conducted in New England "to familiarize Federal, state and local emergency personnel with their roles and responsibilities in the event of an earthquake. [...] The response activities we engage in can be employed for a H1N1 flu pandemic, hurricanes, or even a terrorist attack."
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
2009-11
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Seismic Waves: Can Wood Buildings Safely Grow Taller in Seismic Regions?
Seismic Waves is a newsletter published by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. "This past summer in rural Japan, the largest building ever seismically tested was subjected to the maximum credible earthquake for Los Angeles on the world's biggest shake table. This 'capstone' test of the tallest wood-frame building ever tested marked the culmination of the NEESWood research project. The project was launched in the fall of 2005 with ongoing support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NSF's George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). Since then, NEESWood researchers have marshaled academic, industry, and international collaboration to successfully produce and validate a new design methodology that has major implications for wood-frame construction in seismic regions of the United States and around the world."
National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-10
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Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes: Developing Successful Risk Reduction Programs
"This document provides guidance on how to develop programs to reduce the earthquake risks of existing unreinforced masonry buildings. As the following chapters will show, this building type is typically the most seismically vulnerable category of construction in a community, and it is by far the most common type of building to be singled out for voluntary or mandatory seismic risk reduction programs in the United States."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency; National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-10
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Statement from President Obama on the Disaster in American Samoa [September 30, 2009]
In this statement from September 30, 2009, U.S. President Obama stated "Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami in American Samoa and the region. I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is in close and constant contact with emergency responders, and the U.S. Coast Guard is fully supporting the deployment of resources to those areas in need of immediate assistance. We also stand ready to help our friends in Samoa and the region. Going forward, we will continue to provide the resources necessary to respond to this catastrophe, and we will keep those who have lost so much in our thoughts and prayers."
United States. Office of the White House Press Secretary
2009-09-30
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President Obama Declares a Major Disaster Exists in American Samoa [September 29, 2009]
From the Document: "The President tonight [September 29, 2009] declared a major disaster exists in the Territory of American Samoa and ordered Federal aid to supplement Territory and local recovery efforts in the area struck by an earthquake, tsunami, and flooding beginning on September 29, 2009, and continuing. The President's action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the Territory of American Samoa."
United States. Office of the White House Press Secretary
2009-09-29
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Advanced National Seismic System Northeastern United States (ANSS-NE) Implementation Plan
"The purpose of the implementation plan, contained herein, is to identify and prioritize goals and to propose specific actions and activities to achieve these goals. These actions will ultimately improve efforts to mitigate the effects of earthquakes, especially seriously damaging earthquakes, in the northeast U.S. The plan explains from the stakeholders' point of view what the important earthquake hazards and monitoring issues are for the next 5 years. The plan coordinates the activities of a number of different seismological research and monitoring centers at the federal and local levels (including internationally), as well as those of a large and diverse set of states and urban areas. The plan also addresses what priorities should be assigned to proposed [Advanced National Seismic System Northeastern United States] (ANSS-NE) activities, and identifies potential funding sources."
Geological Survey (U.S.)
Fratto, Edward S.
2009-09-15
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Protecting Our Nation: A Report of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission [Revision 1]
"For over 30 years, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has maintained effective nuclear security, emergency preparedness, and incident response programs. The NRC requires safe and secure operations at nuclear facilities. Safety refers to operating the facility in a manner that protects the public and the environment. Security refers to protecting the facility from adversaries who wish to harm people and the environment. Safety and security are accomplished by using people, equipment, and physical protection. Security is achieved in layers, with multiple approaches at work. For example, nuclear power plants are inherently secure, robust structures that are designed and built to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. In addition, well-trained, armed security guards, physical barriers, access controls, and intrusion detection and surveillance systems protect certain NRC-licensed facilities, such as commercial power reactors. For other applicable NRC-and Agreement State-licensed facilities, the NRC has required implementation of enhanced security requirements. Another layer of protection is in place for coordinating threat information and response. The NRC works closely with Federal, State, and local authorities. These relationships ensure that the NRC can act quickly to disseminate threat information to licensees and allow effective emergency response in the event of an attack. Together, these layers of defense provide a level of security likely second to none in the national commercial sector."
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
2009-09
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Community Emergency Response Team: Pandemic Influenza Module, Participant Guide
"As a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member, you provide invaluable support to your community in times of need. The core training you received helped prepare you to respond to disasters of all kinds - earthquakes, fires, floods, and other naturally occurring or man-made emergencies. This pandemic influenza (flu) module was developed for CERT members with little or no medical background. For the purpose of this module, pandemic influenza will be referred to as pandemic flu. [...] The module was designed to identify possible CERT roles before, during, or after a pandemic flu outbreak. It includes information that you, your family, or your neighbors may need before, during, and after a flu pandemic."
California. Department of Public Health
2009-09
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Mass Care (ESF-6) Preparedness for Catastrophic Disasters
"The author of this thesis asserts that the current mass care response capability of the state of Missouri is insufficient to meet the sheltering, feeding and bulk distribution needs of the projected affected population in a catastrophic disaster. This thesis focuses on a catastrophic seismic event along the New Madrid fault zone resulting in an earthquake with a Richter scale reading approximating 7.7 or higher to determine the baseline mass care needs. A capability gap exists due to an insufficient number of trained, qualified mass care volunteers. Correcting this deficiency requires a new approach including the modification of the current management structure and the active participation and collaboration between all levels of government, volunteer organizations and the private sector. The author proposes concepts that appear to be basic in nature to emergency managers, but when presented to the volunteer community were welcomed, but perceived as progressive. These corrective actions include a state-wide recruiting effort, standardized training and a more hierarchal management structure within the Emergency Support Function 6."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security; Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Charrier, Ronald J.
2009-09
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Smart Grid Principal Characteristics: Operates Resilently against Attack and Natural Disaster
"The energy industry's assets and systems were not designed to handle extensive, well-organized acts of terrorism aimed at key elements. The U.S. energy infrastructure is a huge network of electric generating facilities and transmission lines, natural gas pipelines, oil refineries and pipelines, coal mines, communications systems, and various other elements. Occasionally, these systems have been exposed to large-scale natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Generally, industries have restored energy supplies relatively quickly. Sabotage of individual components has caused some problems, but the impacts have been managed. We have done well in the past, but our post-9/11 future will be more challenging. Today's electric system was not designed to handle extensive, well-organized acts of terrorism aimed at strategic elements. The threat of attack is growing and a widespread attack against the infrastructure is more likely today than ever before. It is therefore critical that the smart grid address security from the outset, making it a requirement for all the elements of the grid and ensuring an integrated and balanced approach across the system. Threats to the smart grid can be broken into two categories: physical attacks (explosives, projectiles, natural disaster) and cyber (computer-launched) attacks. Whatever the specific nature of the threat, designers of the smart grid should plan for a directed, well-planned, and simultaneous attack against several vital parts of the system."
United States. Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability; National Energy Technology Laboratory (U.S.)
2009-09
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Establishing FEMA Operational Centers of Excellence
From the letter of William L. Carwile, III to FEMA: "During the July 2009 Regional Administrator's Conference, we discussed a number of priorities and initiatives that will help advance the mission of the Disaster Operations Directorate and FEMA in the coming months and improve our ability to prepare for and respond to all hazard events. One such initiative involves the creation of FEMA Operational Centers of Excellence (OCOE) demonstrating expertise in discreet operational response functions. FEMA Regions regularly and consistently respond to the same types of disasters, based on their geographic location and susceptibility to specific hazardous conditions or unique weather patterns. These regions could become Regional OCOEs or, combined with other regions, could form Territorial OCOEs for specific disaster response functions. In this capacity, the OCOEs could serve as a centralized body of subject matter experts responsible for leading the development of specialized guidance and best practices for the specific response function identified. Each OCOE would leverage the existing knowledge base and response, training, and exercise experience in a particular functional response area and share this expertise. For example, Regional and/or Territorial OCOEs could be established on a regional or territorial basis for earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, tornados, cold weather, biological, man-made, or other response functional areas."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2009-08-13
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Developing a Risk Analysis for the City of Maryville
"The problem is that the City of Maryville does not have an up to date risk analysis. The purpose of this project is to identify risks that would affect the City of Maryville and its fire department. Descriptive methodology was used to guide this study. The research questions were: (a) What natural and/or man-made risks exist or have the potential to develop in the City of Maryville? (b) What risks will have the greatest impact upon Maryville's citizens and businesses? (c) What history is available to address risks within the City of Maryville? (d) Is the City of Maryville Fire Department prepared to respond to the identified risk and if not, what steps need to be implemented to do so? The procedures that were involved in this research started in January 2009, at the National Fire Academy's Learning Resource Center. Results indicated that Maryville was most vulnerable to an incident involving hazardous materials in transportation and at fixed locations. The downtown district was another risk because of density, changing occupancy and age. Tornadoes and earthquakes were also identified as potential risk. The recommendations were that the downtown district needs to have a thorough pre-fire plan on every structure. Fire department personnel need to know the layout and construction of each building in the downtown area. Emergency Operations Plans should be kept current with annual table top exercises to prepare fire department officers to operate more efficiently. Special training should be required to respond to some of these risks."
National Fire Academy
Hodges, David H.
2009-08
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Seismic Waves: Forecasting What's Coming Up from Down Below
Seismic Waves is a newsletter published by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. "California has a greater than 99 percent probability of experiencing one or more highly damaging magnitude-6.7-or-larger earthquakes during the next 30 years. The two faults most likely to generate a major earthquake during that period are the southern segment of the San Andreas Fault and the San Francisco Bay Area's Hayward Fault. These are among the findings of the first-ever statewide earthquake rupture forecast developed for California. A team of federal, state, and university scientists and engineers named the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP) issued this forecast in April 2008, building upon earlier forecasts generated for selected areas of the state. The group incorporated the latest data, methods, and expert opinion to develop a state-of-the-art forecasting methodology and an unprecedented set of earthquake probabilities that are advancing earthquake safety in several important ways."
National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-08
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Earthquake Hazard in the New Madrid Seismic Zone Remains a Concern
"Considerable interest has developed recently from media reports that the New Madrid seismic zone may be shutting down. These reports stem from published research using global positioning system (GPS) instruments with results of geodetic measurements of strain in the Earth's crust. Because of a lack of measurable strain at the surface in some areas of the seismic zone over the past 14 years, arguments have been advanced that there is no buildup of stress at depth within the New Madrid seismic zone and that the zone may no longer pose a significant hazard. As part of the consensus-building process used to develop the national seismic hazard maps, the U.S. Geo¬logical Survey (USGS) convened a workshop of experts in 2006 to evaluate the latest findings in earthquake hazards in the Eastern United States. These experts considered the GPS data from New Madrid available at that time that also showed little to no ground movement at the surface. The experts did not find the GPS data to be a convincing reason to lower the assessment of earthquake hazard in the New Madrid region, especially in light of the many other types of data that are used to construct the hazard assess¬ment, several of which are described here."
Geological Survey (U.S.)
2009-08
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Annual Report of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program for Fiscal Year 2008
"This document is the annual report of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) for fiscal year (FY) 2008 presented by the NEHRP Interagency Coordinating Committee (ICC). This report, required by Public Law 108-360, describes the activities of the NEHRP agencies during the year and their progress toward reducing the impacts of future earthquakes in the United States. Additionally, this report gives program budgets for FY 2009 and those proposed for FY 2010. The NEHRP ICC is composed of the Directors of the four NEHRP agencies and the Directors of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Management and Budget. The four NEHRP agencies are the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). NIST serves as the NEHRP lead agency and its Director chairs the ICC." The accomplishments reviewed in this report include: "NEHRP Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2009-2013"; "George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)"; "International Codes"; and "Earthquake hazards of the Hayward Fault in California's East Bay region."
National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-08
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Defense Critical Infrastructure: Actions Needed to Improve the Consistency, Reliability, and Usefulness of DOD's Tier 1 Task Critical Asset List, Congressional Committees
"The Department of Defense (DOD) relies on a global network of defense critical infrastructure so essential that the incapacitation, exploitation, or destruction of an asset within this network could severely affect DOD's ability to deploy, support, and sustain its forces and operations worldwide and to implement its core missions, including current missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of its importance to DOD operations, this defense critical infrastructure could be vulnerable to attacks by adversaries, and vulnerable to natural disasters and hazards, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Since September 2003, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' Security Affairs (ASD[HD&ASA]) has been responsible for developing and ensuring implementation of critical infrastructure protection policy and program guidance. To identify and help assure the availability of this mission-critical infrastructure, in August 2005 DOD established the Defense Critical Infrastructure Program (DCIP), assigning overall responsibility for the program to ASD(HD&ASA). In April 2008, DOD issued an instruction that further assigned responsibilities and prescribed procedures for the implementation of DCIP, among other things. In October 2008, DOD formalized the process for identifying and prioritizing its critical infrastructure."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2009-07-17
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Seismic Waves: Safely Spreading the Benefits of Precast Construction
Seismic Waves is a newsletter published by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. "Should scientific research advance knowledge, commercial activity, or the public good? These objectives are sometimes viewed as competitors in a zero-sum game or as rivals for increasingly scarce societal resources. The Diaphragm Seismic Design Methodology (DSDM) Project is serving all of these objectives, however, and that is just one of several attributes that make this a remarkable research effort."
National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-07
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Disaster Recovery: Experiences from Past Disasters Offer Insights for Effective Collaboration after Catastrophic Events, Report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate
"In the wake of the 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes, coordination and collaboration challenges created obstacles during the government's response and recovery efforts. Because of the many stakeholders involved in recovery, including all levels of government, it is critical to build collaborative relationships. Building on GAO's September 2008 report which provided several key recovery practices from past catastrophic disasters, this report presents examples of how federal, state, and local governments have effectively collaborated in the past. GAO reviewed five catastrophic disasters--the Loma Prieta earthquake (California, 1989), Hurricane Andrew (Florida, 1992), the Northridge earthquake (California, 1994), the Kobe earthquake (Japan, 1995), and the Grand Forks/Red River flood (North Dakota and Minnesota, 1997)--to identify recovery lessons. GAO interviewed officials involved in the recovery from these disasters and experts on disaster recovery. GAO also reviewed relevant legislation, policies, and the disaster recovery literature. […]. GAO recommends the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to create a mechanism focused on sharing information and lessons learned regarding disaster recovery, including good collaborative practices. The Department of Homeland Security concurred with our recommendation."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2009-07
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Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Colloquium: Final Report
"There have been many major advances in geotechnical earthquake engineering since research was accelerated by the 1964 Alaska and Japan earthquakes, where much of the damage was caused by soil effects. However, in many respects the state of the art remains less than satisfactory. A number of questions with important safety and economic implications have never been answered, or even posed clearly. Recent advances in computer and information sciences, laboratory and field testing capabilities, and field observation of earthquake effects, all infused with a new generation of powerful sensing technologies, provide an opportunity for resolving many of these major problems. Specifically, analytical procedures for geotechnical analysis and design, including powerful computer simulations, show promise of providing an increasingly realistic virtual counterpart to the actual performance of soils and structures during earthquakes. They also make it possible to perform systematic quantitative observational and experimental validations of those procedures. On July 29, 2009, a workshop (colloquium) was convened jointly by the Center for the Study of Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to identify high priority research questions that may now be addressed with modern technological and analytical tools. The workshop was held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. The workshop participants are identified in Appendix A. The participants considered the range of successes and problems in the field, identified groups of facilities exposed to earthquake risk that are of concern to the Department of Homeland Security, and prepared a prioritized list of research areas that can improve the state of practice for these facilities."
United States. Department of Homeland Security. Science and Technology Directorate
2009-07
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Earthquake Information Products and Tools from the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)
"This Fact Sheet provides a brief description of a series of new or updated post-earthquake tools and products. The focus is on products specifically aimed at providing situational awareness in the period immediately following significant earthquake events."
United States. Department of the Interior; Geological Survey (U.S.)
2009-07
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Programmatic Biological Assessment for Fourteen Common Disaster Activities in Washington State
"The intent of the Programmatic Biological Assessment (PBA) is to streamline the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) consultation process and quickly repair or replace public facilities. The activities described in this PBA are often associated with disasters such as earthquakes, floods, strong winds, and slides in Washington State. Only actions that result in 'may affect, not likely to adversely affect' determinations are covered by this PBA. The PBA includes fourteen activities authorized for funding under the Stafford Act, PL-93-288 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The fourteen activities include: organic debris removal, mineral debris removal, anthropogenic debris removal, gravel placement, piling repair and replacement dewater and water diversion actions, recreational structure repair, wave wall and seawall repair, revetment repair, road and trail repair, bridge and abutment repair, stormwater system repair, building elevation, and building acquisition. Each activity includes a project description and relative conservation measures, as appropriate. The PBA explicitly identifies specific methods that may affect, but are not likely to adversely affect, listed species or designated critical habitat. Projects covered by the PBA may include more than one activity that complies with the programmatic (i.e. a repair project may require debris removal and water diversion before the actual repairs are initiated). In these cases the applicant is responsible identifying all individual activities associated with the total project. Projects with methods or activities that are not covered by this PBA will be consulted on individually either informally or formally."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2009-06-29
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Effects of Strength and Stiffness Degradation on Seismic Response
"Much of the nation's work regarding performance-based seismic design has been funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), under its role in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). Prevailing practice for performance-based seismic design is based on FEMA 273, NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings (FEMA, 1997) and its successor documents, FEMA 356, Pre-standard and Commentary for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings (FEMA, 2000), and ASCE/SEI Standard 41-06, Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings (ASCE, 2006b). This series of documents has been under development for over twenty years, and has been increasingly absorbed into engineering practice over that period. The FEMA 440 report, Improvement of Nonlinear Static Seismic Analysis Procedures (FEMA, 2005), was commissioned to evaluate and develop improvements to nonlinear static analysis procedures used in prevailing practice. Recommendations contained within FEMA 440 resulted in immediate improvement in nonlinear static analysis procedures, and were incorporated in the development of ASCE/SEI 41-06. However, several difficult technical issues remained unresolved."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency; National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-06
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Quantification of Building Seismic Performance Factors
"This report describes a recommended methodology for reliably quantifying building system performance and response parameters for use in seismic design. The recommended methodology (referred to herein as the Methodology) provides a rational basis for establishing global seismic performance factors (SPFs), including the response modification coefficient (R factor), the system overstrength factor […], and deflection amplification factor (Cd), of new seismic-force-resisting systems proposed for inclusion in model building codes. The purpose of this Methodology is to provide a rational basis for determining building seismic performance factors that, when properly implemented in the seismic design process, will result in equivalent safety against collapse in an earthquake, comparable to the inherent safety against collapse intended by current seismic codes, for buildings with different seismic-force-resisting systems."
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency; National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (U.S.)
2009-06
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R-Tech Newsletter: The Newsletter of the First Responder Technologies Program [Volume 2 Issue 6, June 2009]
"This issue of the First Responders Technologies Program newsletter has four articles. The first article, "Mapping the Future," discusses Hazards U.S. Multi-Hazard (HAZUS-MH), computer software that uses geographic information systems to "estimate the probability and potential consequences of earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods." The second article, "Random Acts," describes the Assistant for Randomized Monitoring Over Routes (ARMOR) program, which "eliminates the predictability of security patrols, checkpoints, and other scheduled and routine security measures." The third article, "Long-Distance Triage Technology," examines the Standoff Patient Triage Tool (SPTT), which takes physiological readings from up to 40 feet away. Finally, the last section discusses the Responder Knowledge Base's exhaustive product list."
United States. Department of Homeland Security
2009-06
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NEHRP Seismic Design Technical Brief No. 2: Seismic Design of Steel Special Moment Frames: A Guide for Practicing Engineers
"A guide for designing buildings using steel moment frames to resist earthquakes has been published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as part of its support for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). Beams, columns and beam-column connections are specially designed in 'structural steel special moment frames' to withstand building sway during the ground shaking that accompanies earthquakes. The new publication, Seismic Design of Steel Special Moment Frames: A Guide for Practicing Engineers, consolidates requirements of the International Building Code, which is the code generally adopted throughout the United States, and related standards including ASCE 7, AISC 341 and AISC 358. The guide covers code requirements and accepted approaches to their implementation, including background and sketches to illustrate the requirements. It also includes chapters on the use of special moment frames, their principles, guidance on analysis and design, additional requirements and detailing and constructability issues. The authors, professional engineers Ronald O. Hamburger, Helmut Krawinkler, James O. Malley and Scott M. Adan, also present best practice recommendations for design and construction that may not be specifically required by the codes or standards. Seismic Design of Steel Special Moment Frames: A Guide for Practicing Engineers is written for structural engineers, building officials, educators and students. It is the second in a series of technical briefs that NIST is publishing to address topics of interest to earthquake professionals, primarily those in the design and construction industries. Future technical briefs are expected to cover performing nonlinear structural analyses and seismic analysis and design of reinforced concrete diaphragms."
National Institute of Standards and Technology (U.S.)
Hamburger, Ronald O.; Krawinkler, Helmut; Malley, James O.
2009-06
