Rules to Remember in an Earthquake, School Safety in Mangan, India
School in Mangan, India.
Courtesy of Chandra Bhakuni
If you live or work in a region at risk for earthquakes, school safety is likely a high priority for your community. School buildings are, unfortunately, often damaged or collapse in earthquakes. (See the GHI paper for statistics on how many and where ). However, there are actions that you can take to reduce the chances that those who attend or work in the schools will be injured, that school property will be damaged, or that school functioning will be disrupted by an earthquake.
Prepare School Facilities
Make your school buildings safer in earthquakes and more resistant to earthquake damage and disruption. Depending on when and how they were designed, built, and furnished, existing school buildings may have weaknesses that make them more vulnerable to earthquakes.
Resources
EERI is compiling resources on school vulnerability, seismic construction guidelines, and international seismic-safety policies. The following table lists some useful publications.
| Source | File | Size | Date (yyyy-mm-dd) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EERI's Tsunami Mitigation for Schools Subcommittee (active 2015 - 2018) |
The Tsunami Mitigation for Schools Subcommittee was generously funded by Coastal Zone Foundation. A summary of their work is found here: Advocacy for Tsunami Mitigation and Preparedness of U.S. schools along the "Pacific Rim" 16 World Conference on Earthquake Engineering paper #4924 [PDF] Charge: Support schools with tsunami hazard by provide them access to experts and sharing best practices for tsunami risk mitigation. Committee members included: Yumei Wang, Heidi Tremayne, Veronica Cedillos, Greg Deierlein, Lori Dengler, Doug Dougherty, Lesley Ewing, Hermann Fritz, Sue Graves, Karen Izumoto, Manuel Lugo, Kevin Miller, Cindy Pridmore, Jay Raskin, Kevin Richards, Althea Rizzo, Ian Robertson, Zahraa Saiyed, John Schelling, Jeri Siegel, Tom Tobin, Heidi Tremayne, Yumei Wang, Jay Wilson, Rick Wilson, Harry Yeh Additional products they produced are below. |
2021-08-20 | |
| Washington Schools Earthquake Performance Assessment Tool (EPAT) | Washington Schools EPAT User Guide [PDF] By Kenneth A. Goettel, Cale Ash, and Erica Fischer Checklist for Data Entry: EPAT Quick Start Checklist for Data Entry, August 10, 2017 [PDF] Earthquake Performance Assessment Tool (EPAT): Washington Schools EPAT for prioritizing building retrofit, August 10, 2017 [XLS] A general description of each of the 16 structural system of model building types: Appendix 1: FEMA HAZUS MH 2.1 Earthquake Technical Manual: Building Types [PDF] Damage State Descriptions for Seismic Fragility Curves Appendix 2: FEMA HAZUS MH 2.1 Earthquake Technical Manual: Damage States [PDF] Washington State Building Code History, February 9, 2017 [PDF] By Cale Ash, Erica Fischer, and Kenneth Goettel EPAT Results, Okanogan Chelan Schools [XLS] |
308 KB 67 KB 5,661 KB 27 KB 39 KB 501 KB 41 KB |
2017-02-09 - 2017-08-10 |
| 16th WCEE, Santiago, Chile | 16th WCEE Special Session 74SS: Advocating for Improved School Earthquake Safety The following are papers presented in this session Session Overview Slides H. Tremayne, L. Van Den Einde, B. Weliver Creating an Advocacy Network for improved School Earthquake Safety Download presentation slides L. Van Den Einde, S. Fatima, T. Anagnos, H. Tremayne, B. Welliver, Y. Wang, L. Tobin Advocacy for Tsunami Mitigation and Preparedness of U.S. Schools Along the Pacific Rim Download presentation slides Z. Saiyed, S. Fatima, K. Izumoto, I. Robertson, B. Welliver, H. Tremayne School Safety Guide for Natural Hazards M. Mahoney, V. Cedillos, A. Herseth, A. Hortacsu, L. Peek, B. Welliver Improving the Earthquake Safety of Ghana's Schools C.D. Bou-Chedid, L. Maclise, S. Ali, C. Ash, D. Hutchings Mieler, H. Mdala, V. Rawal, K. Stillwell National School Seismic Retrofit Project in Israel Y. Offir, Y. Daniel, I. Shoshani Development and its Dissemination of School Disaster and Emergency Management Plan in the Republic of Turkey Y. Yamzaki, B. Özmen, O. Ergünay, F. Kaneko, Miyazaki Seismic Risk Assessment of Public Schools and Prioritization Strategy for Risk Mitigation R. Rincón, L. Yamin, A. Becerra Prioritization Methodology for Seismic Risk Reduction in Public Schools. Study Case: Lima, Peru S. Santa-Cruz, J. Palomino, E. Arana Performance-based Seismic Retrofit of School Buildings in British Columbia, Canada - An Overview C. E. Ventura, A. Bebamzadeh, M. Fairhurst, M. Turek, G. Taylor , W. D. L. Finn |
1 MB 750 KB 320 KB 4 MB 292 KB 502 KB 307 KB 672 KB 736 KB 216 KB 742 KB |
2017-01-09 |
| SEAOC Convention, October 2016 | Resilient Schools Through Leadership and Community Engagement By K. Yu, J. Newell, D. Beyer, C. Poland, J. Raskin, R. Steinbrugge | 724 KB | 2016-10-12 |
| EERI School Earthquake Safety Initiative Webinar Tuesday, July 12, 2016 |
EERI School Earthquake Safety Initiative Webinar Video Recording PDF Version of Presentation Slides Topics discussed include: Intro to SESI and its Subcommittees By SESI Chari Barry Welliver, Classroom Subcommittee Chair Lelli Van Den Einde, & Code Updates Subcommittee Chair Rob Jackson. Thurston County School Seismic Safety Evaluations by Cale Ash (M. EERI, 2002), Principal, Degenkolb Engineers. Partnering to Perform Rapid Visual Screenings of Alaska’s Schools by Laura Kelly, Alaska Seismic Hazards Safety Commission. |
12MB | 2016-07-12 |
| 2nd Meeting of Safe School Leaders, Tehran, Iran, October 4-5, 2015 | Report on Iran's Activities on Disaster Risk Reduction of Schools Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools Short Report By United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Second Safe School Leaders Meeting Report By Barry H Welliver, Chair SESI. |
16MB | 2015-10-04 |
| EERI, FEMA, Prepared for The Alaska Seismic Hazards Safety Commission |
Vulnerability of Kenai Peninsula Borough Schools to Earthquake Damage Based on Rapid Visual Screening Appendix A-Score Sheets for ROVER by BBFM Engineers Inc. |
6MB 5MB | 2015-12-01 |
| 2015 EERI Annual Meeting | "EERI School Earthquake Safety Initiative" Plenary Session - Abstract and Bios "EERI School Earthquake Safety Initiative" Plenary Session - Slide Presentation |
119 KB 3 MB |
2015-03-31 |
| SESI Best Practice Webinar 1 | Webinar Agenda and Intro Slides Seismic Design of School Buildings in Colorado and other Low to Moderate Hazard areas: Is the Internal Building code adequate? Rob Jackson, URS Corp Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of School Buildings (K-12)Barry Welliver, BHW Engineers To see a full recording of this webinar, click here. |
110 KB 11 MB 3 MB |
2014-05-29 |
| SESI Best Practice Webinar 2 Thursday, June 12 |
Webinar Agenda City of Berkeley school retrofit program: advocacy & implementation, with thoughts on national policy making Arrietta Chakos, Urban Resilience Strategies Slides: Utah Schools RVS Advocacy Barry Welliver, BHW Engineers To see a full recording of this webinar, click here. |
110 KB 69 KB 5 MB |
2014-06-12 |
| SESI Best Practice Webinar 3 Thursday, June 26 |
Webinar Agenda Multi-hazard guideline on improving school sheltering and related operations Mike Mahoney, Oregon Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program Gloria Zacharias Slides: Washington State K-12 Facilities Risk Assessments and Hazard Mitigation Planning Ken Goettel, Goettel & Associates, Inc. To see a full recording of this webinar, click here. |
110 KB 53 KB 57 KB 5 MB |
2014-06-26 |
| SESI Best Practice Webinar 4 Thursday, July 10 |
Webinar Agenda San Francisco Private Schools Program Patrick Otellini Slides: Integrating earthquake engineering into high schools with Project Lead the Way Lelli Van Den Einde, University of California San Diego Retrofitting the Piedmont, CA Schools Janiele Maffei, California Earthquake Authority To see a full recording of this webinar, click here. |
110 KB 3 MB 2 MB 3 MB |
2014-07-10 |
| 2014 EERI Annual Meeting and 10NCEE | The Kodiak Experience - Funding for Vulnerable School Facilities Bud Cassidy, Kodiak Island Borough. EERI Special Session - Seismic Safety of Schools John Sherstobitoff, Ausenco Sandwell. School Seismic Safety in Ghana Cale Ash, Degenkolb Engineers. School Hazard Identification & Risk Management in Alaska Laura Kelly, US Coast Guard. |
1 MB 4 MB 6 MB 5 MB |
2014-07-21 |
| 2013 EERI Annual Meeting | School Seismic Safety Presentations (2/13/2013) | 2013-02-12 | |
| Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRRES) |
Toward Safer School Construction A community-based approach This manual lays out a safer school building process that includes a community-based approach, what the process can look like, and how a community-based construction program is run, leading to safer schools and an empowered community. |
5.53MB | 2015-00-00 |
| Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development | Educational Facilities and Risk Management, Natural Disasters This collaborative report compiles information on earthquake risk, management, design and regulations for educational facilities across the world. |
782 KB | 2004-00-00 |
| Edward Wolf & Yumei Wang, Council on Disaster Risk Management | URM-Free by 2033:Toward a National Safe Schools Agenda (publication) The authors review the status of school seismic safety in five high-seismic-hazard zones identified on the USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps. Building a Seismic School Safety Program in the U.S. (Presentation) This presentation from Edward Wolf and Yumei Wang identifies seismic hazards in schools in the U.S., addresses seismic codes in various states and outlines the Build safe Schools Program. |
3.03 MB | 2012-04-06 |
| National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities | Seismic Retrofit for Schools: Resource List Information on design and retrofit of schools to resist earthquakes, compiled by the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities |
3.03 MB | |
| Janise Rodgers, GeoHazards International | Why Schools are Vulnerable to Earthquakes A report on social vulnerability and school safety from GeoHazards International |
1335 KB | 2012-10-01 |
| Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery | Guidance Notes on Safer School Construction The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery presents a framework of guiding principles and general steps to develop a context-specific plan to address disaster resilient construction and retrofitting of school buildings around the world. |
5851 KB | 2009-00-00 |
| Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery | Developing a Strategy for Improving Seismic Safety of Schools in Nepal Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery |
545 KB | 2010-00-00 |
| FEMA | Design Guide for Improving School Safety in Earthquakes, Floods and High Winds Comprehensive guidance on making new and existing schools more resistant to earthquakes |
2010-12-01 | |
| FEMA | Incremental Seismic Rehabilitation of School Buildings (K-12) : Providing Protection to People and Buildings This publication was developed to provide school administrators with the information necessary to assess the seismic vulnerability of their buildings, and to implement a program of incremental seismic rehabilitation for those buildings. |
2003-06-01 | |
| FEMA | Reducing the Risks of Nonstructural Earthquake Damage—A Practical Guide, Fourth Edition This document explains the sources of earthquake damage that can occur in nonstructural components and provides information on effective methods for reducing risk associated with nonstructural earthquake damage |
2012-12-01 | |
| Rob Jackson, P.E., EERI School Safety Committee, prepared for American Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities | Earthquake Safety Guidelines for Educational Facilities | 367 KB | 2012-12-01 |
