Project architects, community members and children join a ground-breaking for Beaverton’s new resilient schools. PHOTO: Scott Johnson/Beaverton Project Manager-Facilities Development

The Oregon Chapter the Association of Civil Engineers was just mentioned in an article on making resilience a priority for school districts.  The article from ASCE News, focuses on the efforts of the Beaverton School District to adopt the findings of the Oregon Resilience Plan (ORP) for schools. The ORP’s  goals were to ensure that schools can be reopened thirty days after a Cascadia earthquake, and recommended that they be used for community shelters following the earthquake.

Although it focuses on the three ASCE members involved in the effort, I was also worked on the project as a sub-consultant for SEFT, Inc.,  Kent Yu’s firm. Kent led the the Oregon Resilience Plan effort when he was chair of the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Committee (which … Read More »

OPB has been doing an incredible integrated radio, TV, and online effort, called “Unprepared”, looking at the vulnerability of the region to a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake and resulting tsunami. The finale will be an airing of the Oregon Field Guide Special Unprepared Documentary.  The premier showing will be October 1, 2015 at 6:10 pm.  For those wanting a sneak peak and to participate in a question and answer session, the local chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is putting on an event at Mercy Corps at 6:00 pm, Thursday, September 24th, at Mercy Corps.

The recent subduction zone earthquake in Chile was an 8.3 magnitude which puts it in the “Small Size” Cascadia earthquake category. Since the ruptures start from the south, the rupture would stretch up northern California to Oregon.  While not as powerful as a full rupture that would continue … Read More »

The City of Newport has a created a tsunami interpretative trail in the South Beach area.  Coastal communities have been very creative in Cascadia preparedness and this trail is just one among many efforts.  Knowledge about tsunami’s is the key to saving lives and this interpretative trail system should be expanded along the entire Oregon coast.  Places on the coast that show distinctive geological features related to tsunami inundations or subduction zone earthquakes could have interpretative plaques.  Historical plaques can tell of the impact of previous tsunami’s or relate to the folklore of coastal Indian traditions talking about tsunami’s.  These traditions relayed information about what to do when the sea withdrew suddenly (a sign a tsunami is coming) and tied them to geological markers.  In the Clatsop tribe stories, Haystack Rock was an overturned basket and the story reminded listeners … Read More »

A recent article in the New York Times, “The Generator is the Machine of the Moment” talks about changes to building projects to make them more resilient to Hurricane Sandy  type storms.  The changes are straight forward changes to the building systems, such as moving mechanical systems out of the basement, flood proofing the basements and lower floors, installing generators and pumping systems.  Other changes are at the level of developments which look at ways of storing storm water on site in the lower floors and open areas to reduce the impact.  This is now the “new normal” because the people using the buildings don’t want to endure the loss of power and disruptions to their lives. They recognize that these types of storms are becoming a fact of life, rather than the “storm of the century”.

Being resilient in terms of … Read More »