As we approach the end of this year, I’m delighted to celebrate EERI’s achievements in 2023—read more about those in the recent communique from Executive Director Heidi Tremayne—and anticipate the great things we have planned for the year to come. EERI’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle next April is high on that list.
In early November, I had the pleasure of joining Director of Programs Maggie Ortiz-Millan and Communications and Program Manager Elizabeth Angell on a site visit to meet with local EERI members and other partners and stakeholders in Seattle. It was exciting to witness the plans for the meeting coming together—particularly in our meeting with the Washington Geological Survey, Washington Emergency Management Division, and the EERI Washington Regional Chapter to develop the agenda for the Reconnaissance Field Exercise on April 12. Washington Chapter President Kyle Steuck hosted the planning session meeting at the Seattle Degenkolb Office. The planning group has selected a M7.5 earthquake on the Seattle Fault for the scenario, and it was fascinating—and sobering—to hear from our WGS colleagues about the areas nearby that would be affected by the ground shaking and tsunami. The exercise will begin with a morning briefing on the earthquake and the activation of the Clearinghouse. After the briefing, participants will join interdisciplinary field teams to visit field stations around downtown Seattle, the waterfront, and neighborhoods nearby. At these sites, they will have the opportunity to collect mocked-up reconnaissance data, including signs of ground deformation, tsunami inundation, and impacts to buildings and lifelines, before returning to clearinghouse headquarters for a data sharing and debrief session—and a happy hour.
We also met with members from local engineering firms, including Reid Zimmerman at KPFF, John Hooper at MKA, and then Maggie and Elizabeth followed up with Terry Lundeen of Coughlin Porter Lundeen after my departure. They all gave valuable feedback on the meeting plans and our outreach to the Northwestern engineering community. It was wonderful to hear a lot of excitement about having the EERI community return to Seattle next year. Before heading home, we also met a local developer who has been instrumental in working with the City of Seattle to gain public support for an unreinforced masonry building seismic retrofit ordinance—an important step for the city. Amanda Hertzfeld, URM Program Manager for the City of Seattle and a Co-Chair of the 2024AM Organizing Committee, facilitated this meeting and is now developing program content for the meeting that will take this educational opportunity to share engineering, policy, and outreach lessons to other EERI members who are working in their communities to increase earthquake resilience.
With the support of the regional chapter, the 2024AM organizing committee, and our local workshop and exercise partners, EERI has a head start on planning what is sure to be an exciting and informative gathering. After years of virtual meetings, our members showed up in large numbers for 12NCEE in Salt Lake City and made it known that one of the largest benefits of this multidisciplinary community is the opportunity for networking and collaboration—something we saw again when we came together in San Francisco this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Learning From Earthquakes. We hope you will plan on joining us again in Seattle next April!
