Return to Hazards Center Home Page
French and Olshansky reported results from the first year of their project designed to inventory essential facilities (i.e., hospitals, emergency stations [fire and police], and schools) in mid-America. The purpose of the research is to establish a centralized database that will provide: 1) descriptive information about essential facilities, such as regional characteristics, building type, and structural condition; 2) regional seismic loss estimation (HAZUS) data for the facilities; 3) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data for other researchers; and 4) GIS data for state and local agencies. The procedure for obtaining the information includes identifying contacts from state offices of emergency management, offices of state fire marshals, departments of public health, and state boards of education who then lead the researchers to local officials from whom they may obtain information.
To date, 31 counties in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana have been identified and classified as high-risk (Priority 1) areas. High-risk is defined as areas with Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) greater than or equal to 0.1 and population greater than or equal to 40,000. Data from these counties are incomplete, however, with only 35 out of 3,839 essential facilities providing information on building type. In addition, size and capacity data are generally not available, leaving much work to be done. Nevertheless, the research team has databases with addresses and contact names, and they are in the process of obtaining structural information from the local facilities. In the next six months, the team would like to create a complete list of all essential facilities (including contact people) and obtain complete structural information for each facility. In some counties, they will compare their findings with HAZUS lists. In the long term, they plan to conduct ATC-21* surveys in two communities to help them develop action plans. Ultimately, they hope to disseminate their data via on-line database queries, Internet map servers, and Internet file transfers.
Audience reaction included suggestions that French and Olshansky attempt to identify non-tax paying essential facilities that may not appear in public records and a caution that their inventory research not be promoted as a local land use planning tool.
*ATC-21 refers to the Applied Technology Council's manual, "Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Seismic Hazards."
Return to Hazards Center Home Page
Return
to Index of 1998 Session Summaries