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Frequent and often unpredictable extreme events regularly lead to disruptions of communities both at the national and international scale. These disasters are as much the result of human decisions as of nature (land use, building codes, the engineering of critical infrastructures, etc.). This report addresses these realities and assesses the different aspects of private-public sector collaboration to enhance community disaster resilience. This private-public sector collaboration focuses more particularly on strengthening community disaster resilience, identifying the gaps in knowledge, and recommending research areas that could be targeted by the Human Factors Division of the Department of Homeland Security. The areas where resilience-focused collaboration could benefit with more knowledge are stressed, and a comprehensive research agenda is laid out. However, the members of this committee note that in the face of rapid social change and technological advancement, our understanding of resilience–focused private-public sector collaboration is in its early stages. This report is an initial exploration of a developing subject and lays the foundation for future research.

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See what NEHRP selected for the best mitigation programs from 2007 to present.

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Some of the most susceptible structures to shaking damage are soft-story apartments and condominiums. A soft-story residential building is one that has open parking or commercial space on the first floor and housing on higher floors built prior to recent codes. In an earthquake, ground shaking causes such structures to sway and sometimes collapse. A soft-story collapse can have particularly disastrous consequences considering that they crush cars and kill people occupying the open areas. ABAG modeling has shown that, in both a large earthquake on the Hayward or San Andreas faults, two-thirds of the uninhabitable housing units will likely be in soft-story residential buildings.

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This 16-page booklet provides residents with information about earthquake risks in the community and contains step-by-step instructions for evaluating and strengthening a wood-frame house against earthquakes (anchor-bolting, plywood shear-paneling, nailing, blocking, etc.), strapping a water heater to a wall and preventing the collapse of a brick chimney. It also contains information about the City’s over-the-counter permit process for earthquake home strengthening, references to other resources in the community and answers to frequently asked questions.

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The City of San Leandro includes earthquake safety as one of the top priorities in its public safety mission. There are currently two retrofit programs in effect within the city. One program addresses the seismic strengthening of older un-reinforced masonry buildings, while the other program addresses the strengthening of older wood-frame homes.

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This pilot research was undertaken to discover barriers that prevent homeowners from mitigating earthquake hazards in their homes. There is a relatively significant body of literature on disaster mitigation, which is reviewed and summarized in this report. However, no studies address how these barriers may be overcome so that homeowners would be more proactive in mitigation. If the barriers can be identified, then future communications and policy actions that address these barriers can be taken, resulting in more widespread mitigation implementation that reduces the injury and damage potential that communities face, leading to a reduction in the post- disaster response requirement, and the time required to achieve recovery.

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“A Handbook for Owners to Identify Seismic Hazards in Low Rise Apartment Buildings”

This handbook is intended to be used by building owners to attempt to answer these difficult questions as accurately as possible by identifying structural weaknesses and understanding how to mitigate these weaknesses.

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Surveying your home, foundation bolting, bracing your chimney, reinforcing walls with plywood, FAQ

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