Safe Enough to Stay - ABAG Earthquake and Hazards Program

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Safe Enough to StaySection III RecommendationsA post-earthquake alternative habitability standard should beestablished and implemented in order to encourage residents toshelter in place. The following recommendations will help to achievethis goal.8. Create an interdepartmental shelter-in-place taskforce.The Mayor’s Office should create an interdepartmental shelterin-placetask force. This task force will ensure coordination withthe Department of Building Inspection, the San Francisco FireDepartment (which has joint jurisdiction on multifamily housing andmust agree and cooperate with regard to shelter-in-place standards),the Department of Public Health and the Department of EmergencyManagement. Other agencies that should be involved include theDepartment of Public Works, the Mayor’s Office on Disability and theMayor’s Office of Housing, among others.9. Prepare and adopt regulations that allow for theuse of shelter-in-place habitability standards in adeclared housing-emergency period.Shelter-in-place standards may be adopted in advance of anemergency or be completed and ready to adopt as part of the city’semergency measures. Various agencies should adopt administrativebulletins and similar regulations that detail how code requirementsand policies will need to be implemented. These should includecomplaint, inspection and enforcement procedures.During a declared emergency, a separate housing emergencymay also be declared, which would allow the enforcement of thealternative shelter-in-place habitability standards. A declared housingemergency may continue as a special emergency period past thegeneral declared emergency period and may be applied to specificareas where housing is most severely impacted.10. Develop a plan to implement a shelter-in-placeprogram.This implementation plan should include creating public trainingmaterials, coordinating with existing post-disaster building-evaluationprocedures and stockpiling the materials needed to achieve shelter inplace in the post-disaster period.A. Preparing public training materialsThe interagency task force recommended above should developsimple and clear training materials for residents to help them37 For a full list of services needed in neighborhood support centers, seeAppendix III, page 42.determine whether or not they can shelter in place. These shouldinclude a set of graphic illustrations and a shelter-in-place checklist,which should be incorporated in outreach and training materials tobuilding owners and residents to inform them of shelter-in-placehabitability requirements, standards, inspection procedures and repairexpectations. The training materials could also include such elementsas door tags that say, “I’m Okay!” or “I Need Help.” Additionally,residents could receive special training in shelter in place prior to anevent, much like the current Neighborhood Emergency ResponseTeam (NERT) program.B. Coordinating with existing post-disaster evaluation proceduresAfter an earthquake, professionals will come from all over the countryto help evaluate buildings using the ATC-20 evaluation procedure.If San Francisco’s evaluation procedures are modified to focus onshelter in place, ATC-20 inspectors will need to be trained in SanFrancisco–based shelter-in-place habitability standards. This trainingcan be done when ATC-20 inspectors check in with the Departmentof Building Inspection before being released into the field to conductinspections.C. Storing materials necessary to allow shelter-in-place standardsto be metThe city will need to have certain materials, such as plastic sheetingfor weather protection, on hand for use after a major earthquake.SPUR recommends that the Department of Building Inspection,the Department of Emergency Management and the Department ofPublic Health coordinate to develop a list of these materials and thequantities that will be needed.11. Develop plans for neighborhood support centersto provide necessary help for shelter-in-placecommunities.Neighborhood support centers are not emergency shelters. Rather,they are resource centers that encourage people to stay in theirhomes by providing essential services and information. A store,restaurant, small business, religious or social facility could provide thenecessary space, but a large garage or other covered area could alsosuffice. These neighborhood support centers will need to be staffedand equipped to offer the following services, or quick contact withsuch services 37 :• Information, news and general neighborhood communication andcontact• Telephone, digital, postal and other communication services• Volunteer assistance in conducting shelter-in-place evaluations(on-site or immediately available when required)• Referrals to community service organizations and agencies• Distribution of supplies, water and food• Refrigeration for critical supplies (medication, etc.)• Connection to services such as laundry facilities• Electrical supply, including electronics-charging facilities• Emergency, basic and major medical care30 SPUR Report > January 2012
Section IV:Applicability to otherjurisdictionsSan Francisco is not the only jurisdiction in the Bay Area that isat risk of a seismic event. The United States Geological Surveyestimates that there is a 63 percent chance of a major earthquakeoccurring in the Bay Area some time in the next 30 years. TheHayward Fault is the most likely to rupture, causing massive damagein the East Bay.Much of the work developed for this report and prior SPUR reportsis applicable to other seismically vulnerable jurisdictions. Otherjurisdictions could implement the following set of recommendations toincrease seismic resilience.1. Define resilience and develop a specific target forhousing performance.In our 2009 report “Defining What San Francisco Needs from ItsSeismic Mitigation Policies,” SPUR developed performance targetsfor buildings and lifelines, including a goal of 95 percent shelter inplace for housing. This approach of setting a defined and ambitiousgoal for community recovery has resonated with policymakersand the technical community. Other jurisdictions could take theseperformance targets and adapt them to meet their own needs.2. Complete inventories of vulnerable housing stock.Creating inventories will be a critical first step. SPUR’s analysis andrecommendations for San Francisco build on reliable data and lossestimates produced by SPUR committees, the local engineeringcommunity and the CAPSS project. Other jurisdictions might needto undertake similar building counts and mapping exercises to relatestructure types and geologic hazards to residential occupancies anddemographics.4. Make use of the shelter-in-place evaluation criteriaproposed in Section II of this report.SPUR has called for the further development of these criteria, whichcan be applied in other jurisdictions seeking to evaluate their housingstock for shelter-in-place performance. In particular, the proposedcriteria apply jurisdiction-specific maps and default values. Otherjurisdictions can begin developing similar data now, even as SanFrancisco works on completing the generic criteria. In addition, SanFrancisco has worked with FEMA to produce a new engineeringmethodology specifically for the cost-effective evaluation and retrofitof wood-frame soft-story apartment buildings.5. Build on the work being done by SanFrancisco’s Lifelines Council to analyze utilityinterdependency.San Francisco has convened a council of all utility providers withinfrastructure serving San Francisco. As part of its work, the LifelinesCouncil is conducting a study of the interdependency betweenutilities such as electricity, water, sewer, communications andtransportation to uncover potential weaknesses in these systemsthat could cause cascading impacts after an earthquake if they arenot adequately planned for. Once complete, this study will includefindings that will be of use to other parts of the region, since manyutilities are regional in scope.6. Make use of the post-earthquake alternativeshelter-in-place habitability standards proposed inthis report.Each jurisdiction will need to develop alternative shelter-in-placehabitability standards in order to encourage sheltering in place.The timeline in Figure 6 (page 28) can serve as the basis for thesestandards. Materials developed in San Francisco (for example, theshelter-in-place graphic illustrations and checklist) can help otherjurisdictions create comparable materials.3. Develop procedures to retrofit vulnerable housingtypes.Building on the work done in CAPSS, San Francisco is developing adetailed program to both evaluate and retrofit soft-story wood-framemultifamily housing with five or more units and three or more stories.Other jurisdictions may have comparable types of vulnerable housing.As San Francisco develops evaluation and retrofit standards, otherjurisdictions can adapt these to meet their needs.SPUR Report > January 2012 31
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Safe Enough to Stay - ABAG Earthquake and Hazards Program

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