Ellington

In the basement of the UW Tower, Steven Charvat and his colleagues Siri-Elizabeth McLean and Scott Preston work at the Emergency Operating Center (EOC), a large room filled with computer monitors. Dozens of chairs are draped with brightly colored vests waiting to be thrown on at a moment’s notice — but no one is there to claim them. If the EOC isn’t filled with people, that’s a good sign.

“This is basically the location that the university would convene senior and mid-level officials to coordinate a response to a disaster: an earthquake, a major storm,” said Charvat, director of UW Emergency Management (UWEM).

According to Bill Steele, public information officer for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) on the Seattle campus, Seattle has a moderate to high risk for seismic activity.

“We’ve been pretty lucky historically that the earthquakes that we’ve gotten, the big ones every 20 to 30 years on average, have been deep,” Steele said. “But we’re capable of having bigger quakes right in the crust right under our feet.”

A magnitude-9 on the Cascadia subduction zone, which is off-shore, or a smaller quake on the shallow, crustal Seattle fault would result in much more damage than was seen during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. According to the booklet “Scenario for a Magnitude 6.7 Earthquake on the Seattle Fault,” Nisqually, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale but occurred off-shore, cost the city of Seattle approximately $1–$4 billion in damages. A 6.7 on the Seattle fault could result in $33 billion and result in more than 1,600 fatalities.

“It was kind of a wake-up call for a lot of people at the university,” Steele said of the Nisqually earthquake.

However, earthquake concerns have been around since before Nisqually. In 1991, a group of engineering students examined every building on campus and gauged their ability to withstand an earthquake, compiling the data into a heavy portfolio called “Emergency Management: Earthquake Readiness Advisory Committee” (ERAC).

In 2003, the UW adopted a project called “Restore the Core,” dedicated to restoring those buildings designated by the ERAC as most vulnerable, starting with those at the “core” or center of campus. However, funding for “Restore the Core” was removed from the state budget in 2009, leaving those plans unfinished.

Most of the buildings on the “Critical Building List” published in 2004 have been updated to meet newer seismic codes, but several are still awaiting restoration, including Denny, Miller, Lewis, Anderson, and Eagleson halls. According to the ERAC report, Denny and Miller are liable to sustain major seismic damage.

“The university’s taken a real good approach to prioritizing, and they’re going down [the list] as money is appropriated,” said Tom Pittsford, a structural engineer for Campus Engineering.

In McLean’s opinion, surviving the aftermath of an earthquake is just as important as preparing for it.

“Have a basic hand-crank radio,” McLean advised. “You want to ask for Christmas presents, birthday presents? Ask for a basic, hand-crank radio, maybe one that has a flashlight on it.”

Charvat and his colleagues have made the best of diminishing funds, bringing in additional money for small improvements. Recently, they oversaw federally funded restorations in the Padelford parking garage and at the Burke Museum, where they arranged for the safer storing of priceless artifacts.

The UWEM also touts the benefits of mitigation. Mitigation involves the strapping-down of heavy objects that could become potentially lethal projectiles and the strategic placement of heavy objects that could cause injury or block exits in the event of an earthquake.

“What we want to ensure is that people know we’re here, know that there’s resources, know that they can be empowered right now to do things,” Charvat said. “We have resources right on our webpage that may actually save their life.”

This method, however, is used by less than 50 percent of the campus, by Charvat’s estimate.

“We’re not on their radar screen, until something happens in Japan, or in Hawaii, or in Chile, and then we can almost set our calendars: Within minutes, our phones, our email and Facebook page will light up,” Charvat said. “But traditionally, after a few weeks, it’s time for football season, the academic year, finals; people tend to gravitate away.”

McLean, plans and training manager for the UWEM, said she grew up in a home where heavy objects were strapped to the walls and earthquake safety was a high priority. She regularly visits UW sorority houses, which sought out her expertise, and advises them on earthquake preparedness and mitigation. She also holds free classes on earthquake safety, and one of the key points she covers is the old stand-by students are often taught in elementary school.

“Drop, cover, and hold is ultimately what we teach,” Mclean said. “Do not get in the doorways; that’s something that was taught for many years, but people were losing fingers as the doors were opening and shutting.”

When asked how much of an effect their efforts have had on the UW community, Mclean said it’s not on people’s minds, and that they struggle to increase awareness.

“People say, ‘It won’t happen to me, and if it does it won’t be so bad,’” Charvat said, “that is, until it does happen to someone here on our campus and it definitely is bad. What we want to ensure is that people know we’re here, know that they can be empowered right now to do things that may actually save their life.”

After a major earthquake in the region, survivors would have to deal with another set of challenges, namely waiting for aid to arrive. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) currently advises people to stock up on enough supplies to survive for three days without assistance, but in the instance of a magnitude-9 earthquake with damage spreading as far as Vancouver, B.C. and Northern California, help will likely take longer than that to arrive.

“What people need to recognize is that it’s going to take several days to weeks,” Mclean said. “Help will come into this region, but when we say 72 hours that’s purely a minimum.”

In the aftermath of an earthquake, the Applied Technology Council 20, or the ATC 20, would report to the campus and begin inspecting buildings and assessing their damage. Led by Pittsford, the ATC 20 would be in close communication with UWEM, checking buildings in order of their predicted risk, something designated by the Critical Facilities Index.

According to Steele, despite the potential for heavy earthquake damage in the area and recent cuts in funding, there are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic.

“Every place has its hazards, and we live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth,” Steele said. “It’s much more dangerous to drive than it is to live in earthquake country. There are really solid things we can do to reduce our vulnerability; if we simply attach big, heavy things to our walls and live in reasonably safe buildings, then we’re gonna ride through the earthquake OK.”

Reach contributing writer Marika Justad at development@dailyuw.com.