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Earthquake Mitigation for Business Owners

Steps to Make Your Business Earthquake Resistant

Basic Preparedness

Siting Your Business

1. Evaluate potential site for hazards, such as risk of liquefaction and proximity to faults
   • Free FEMA publications about seismic safety of new and existing buildings
   • Liquefaction hazards
   • The Soil Liquefaction Website from the University of Washington
2. Locate near lifelines (such as transportation, power and water
3. Build to Earthquake Codes
   • Information on seismic building codes
   • A Map of seismic zones in the U.S.
   • Publications about seismic safety, design and costs from FEMA

Mitigation Measures For Existing Buildings

Coprehensive Overview Information about Mitigation:

• Reducing the Risks of Nonstructural Earthquake Damage: A Practical Guide. Third Edition from FEMA
• Emergency Management Guide For Business & Industry
• A useful guide to actions businesses can take to mitigate damage, from the Association of Bay Area Governments
• A Disaster Planning Toolkit for the Small Business Owner
• Information about typical costs for seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings

Specific Steps You Can Take:

1. Conduct an audit of general earthquake vulnerability, as well as a natural hazards risk assessment
   • FEMA’s Guide For Business & Industry
2. Seismically retrofit buildings
   • Retrofitting of buildings
   • Response of buried pipelines subject to earthquake effects
3. Reduce the risks of nonstructural damage by fastening down fixtures and furniture
   • Protecting your property from earthquakes
   • Steps you can take to reduce the risks of nonstructural damage
4. Purchase Earthquake Insurance
5. Create a Business Continuity Plan
   • This document from the Univeristy of Michigan explains the steps necessary to make a business plan.
     Most companies elect to hire their own business contingency planner or hire a consulting firm to help with this part of the process.
6. Train employees to be ready for an earthquake. This should include making sure employees are certified in first aid, CPR, and fire safety
   • Red Cross workplace training programs in CPR and First Aid (available from local chapters)
     Information can also be found in the following publication:
     • Employee Earthquake Preparedness for the Workplace and Home. American Red Cross, 1988. 12 pp. ($1.00 from you local Red Cross Office or by mail from Red Cross Disaster Services, 1550 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109)
   • Hold regular drills to make sure employees know what to do in case of an earthquake

Mitigation Publications

• Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes: A magnitude 9.0 earthquake scenario. Read or order copies of this new report from CREW!
• Just-in-Time Inventory: Effects on Earthquake Recovery. Read or order copies of this new report from CREW!
• What Businesses Learned from the Nisqually Earthquake Of February 28, 2001 read or download this new report from CREW!
• Disaster Preparedness for Businesses
  • A bibliography prepared by Marsha Flett for the MCEER Information Service news
• Selected Publications on the World Wide Web Relating to Earthquake Hazards Mitigation from MCEER
• Information about the Commercial Property Owner’s Guide to Earthquake Safety from the California Seismic Safety Commission is available on-line. This publication costs $5.00.
• Publications about seismic preparedness and building issues (this site contains many technical publications).

Useful Websites

• Washington Emergency Management
• DisasterSafety.org (Institute for Business and Home Safety
• Public Entity Risk Insitute