Half a century ago – on Feb. 9, 1971 – a 6.6-magnitude earthquake rattled the San Fernando Valley, killing 65, injuring 2,500, and causing $505 million in damage ($3.2 billion in today’s dollars).
Forty-seven people perished at one site alone when the San Fernando Veteran’s Hospital crumbled into a heap of rubble. Another nearby hospital, newly built, was pulverized.
Several freeway interchanges collapsed at least partially, and both the Upper and Lower Van Norman dams were severely damaged – the lower one came very close to breaching. Some 80,000 people were evacuated for four days while the water level in the reservoir was lowered.
What would have happened if the dam had collapsed on that day 50 years ago?
A UCLA study determined that between 71,600 and 123,400 people would have died.
Learning from the past
It’s impossible to fathom how that kind of loss would have impacted the future of the valley.
Thankfully, a new dam built to replace the Lower Van Norman survived the Northridge earthquake 23 years later.
Why? The faulty structure was thoroughly analyzed to determine what caused the failure, and this led to newer and significantly safer designs. The same has happened for schools, hospitals, freeway overpasses and bridges, and several types of buildings severely damaged in earthquakes of the past.
Many faulty public facilities and infrastructure have been replaced or upgraded with retrofits.
But an estimated 90 percent of buildings in California’s urban areas are still out of compliance with modern building codes.
That translates to thousands of privately owned buildings at risk of significant damage in a major earthquake.
If government saw fit to safeguard the people inside public buildings, wouldn’t private building owners be wise to do the same to protect their businesses, investments and building occupants?
Important webinar series
Optimum Seismic has teamed up with a coalition of leading business organizations and government officials to launch a monthly webinar series, “The Resilience Advantage,” to help educate property owners, businesses and community leaders about the threats they face and the approaches to take to avoid social and economic disaster.
“We know that earthquakes can have devastating impacts on vulnerable buildings, people and our economy, but they don’t have to be disasters,” explained U.S. Resiliency Council Executive Director Evan Reis, who hosts the program.
The webinars explain why investing in resilience is good economics, good business, responsible public policy, and good for the environment.
Each episode in the webinar series features a special video presentation on the topic plus a panel of recognized experts addressing risks, building safety, social concerns, and business and economic impacts.
Partners in the series include the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, L.A. County Economic Development Corporation, Los Angeles County Business Federation and U.S. Resiliency Council.
Upcoming webinars will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, January 21, and Wednesday, February 17 – with others planned throughout the year. For more information, visit optimumseismic.com/the-resilience-advantage. Earlier video presentations and webinars are also posted there for those who missed any of the series.
No time to wait
What will happen when the next major earthquake strikes urban Los Angeles?
The 1971 San Fernando quake was the worst temblor to strike the valley since an 1893 – nearly 80 years prior. Twenty-three years later, the valley was awakened to the reality of earthquake risk by the 1994 Northridge quake.
Recent estimates have put damages caused by a magnitude-7 earthquake on the Puente Hills fault at more than $252 billion, with thousands killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
What can we do to prepare before the next Big One strikes? Find out more by tuning into the webinar series.
Visit optimumseismic.com for more information or call us at 323-605-0000.
