In previous podcasts, we’ve explored publicly available tools that can help you learn about the earthquake hazard where you live. In this podcast, structural engineer Dan Sloat explains what earthquake shaking could do to your house or building, how you can discover your building’s vulnerabilities, and what you can do to reduce or prevent the damage.

Dan Sloat

Dan Sloat is an Associate structural engineer in the Seattle office of the engineering firm Degenkolb, where his work includes the seismic retrofit of buildings and designing tsunami vertical evacuation structures. He is also a member of the American Institute of Steel Construction committees on existing buildings and seismic design. (Degenkolb Bio)

Episode 10 transcript Link

Show Notes

Ready to Recover podcast #5: Retrofitting Before the Earthquake to Prevent Injury and Damage and Speed Recovery (link to webpage)

This podcast looks at how you can use seismic design category maps for International Residential Code to gain some insight into the earthquake hazard at your address so you can make informed decisions about retrofitting, earthquake insurance, and other preparedness actions. Dr. Mike Tong, a senior physical scientist at FEMA, and Kelly Cobeen, a registered civil and structural engineer, will explain what seismic design categories are, how you can find your category, and what you can learn from it.

Mai (Mike) Tong

Dr. Mai (Mike) Tong is a senior physical scientist at FEMA, where he oversees FEMA National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program projects that produce technical guidance and code resources for new buildings. He served as the FEMA project officer on the development team that produced the seismic design category maps for 2024 International Residential Code and International Building Code.

Kelly Cobeen

Kelly Cobeen is a registered civil and structural engineer and Principal of Wiss Janney Elstner Associates in their San Francisco area office. Her interests include the earthquake resistance of both new and retrofitted light-frame construction. Among her many code development, research, and educational activities, she participated in the development of the seismic design category maps and their adoption into the International Residential Code and International Building Code.  (link to bio)

Episode 9 Transcript Link – View full Show Notes here.

Preparing for disasters starts with understanding the hazards and risks that we face. Many state geological surveys provide public access to geologic hazard portals or viewers on their websites. These interactive tools provide information about earthquakes and other geologic hazards in the state. In this podcast, geologists Corina Allen, Adam Hiscock, and Jeri Young Ben-Horin discuss what the portals are and what they can reveal.

Corina Allen is Chief Hazards Geologist at the Washington Geological Survey in the Department of Natural Resources, where she manages the earthquake, tsunami, and volcanic hazards section. Her work includes identifying geologic hazards and publishing and presenting the science to stakeholders. (Bio)

Dr. Jeri Young Ben-Horin is a Research Scientist with the Arizona Geological Survey at the University of Arizona. Her work includes operating the state’s seismic network, mapping active hazards including faults, and informing emergency managers statewide about seismic hazards. She is involved with creating the Arizona Virtual Earthquake Clearinghouse and organizing the Arizona Council for Earthquake Safety (ACES). She teaches as a visiting professor at Arizona State University. (Bio)

Adam I. Hiscock is a Project Geologist in the Geologic Hazards Program at the Utah Geological Survey. His current work includes mapping and characterizing active faults across Utah, as well as leading paleoseismic studies on active faults. He acts as staff to the Utah Seismic Safety Commission and provides outreach and education on Utah’s earthquake hazards. (Bio)

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

Episode Transcript

Show Notes

This episode takes a closer look at small businesses: A community’s recovery after an earthquake or other disaster hinges a lot on the recovery of small businesses, which provide goods, services and employment, and often have a social role as well. Yet small businesses—especially in low- and moderate-income communities—are really vulnerable to the damage and economic disruption that disasters cause. Here to discuss these challenges and potential solutions are Carolyn Kousky, Ben Collier, Tina Poole Johnson, and Claire Kramer Mills.

Carolyn Kousky is Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy Analysis at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). She is the author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future and has published numerous articles, reports, and book chapters on the economics and policy of climate risk and disaster finance. (Bio)

Ben Collier is an Associate Professor in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management in the Fox School of Business at Temple University. His research examines how households and firms manage severe climate risks. (Bio)

Claire Kramer Mills is Assistant Vice President and Director of Community Development Analysis, Outreach & Education at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She leads a team that promotes economic opportunity by equipping community stakeholders with rigorous data analysis and tools to make impactful investments. (Bio)

Tina Poole Johnson is Deputy Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for Impact Finance at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, where she is part of a team whose work includes connecting capital to initiatives that address economic and social inequality and crafting policies and practices to ensure that low-income, low-wealth, and other underserved people and communities have access to affordable, responsible capital. (Bio)

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

This discussion focuses on how and why disasters disproportionately impact lower-income people and considers the factors that inhibit their recovery, as well as potential options and ideas for addressing them.

Dr. Carlos Martín is the David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings Metro and the Director of the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. He has trained as an architect, construction engineer, and historian of technology, and for the past 20 years, he has been engaged in research and analysis of policy in the fields of disaster management, climate mitigation and adaptation, energy and environmental justice, energy efficiency, and housing construction and design. (Bio)

Dr. Divya Chandrasekhar is an Associate Professor in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. She researches post-disaster community participation and capacity building, networking and coordination among recovery institutions, and disaster recovery policy in South and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the United States. She serves on Utah’s Seismic Safety Commission, the Utah State Hazard Mitigation Team, and the “Resilient America” Roundtable on Risk and Resilience of Extreme Events of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. (Bio)

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

Strengthening buildings before an earthquake strikes can lessen damage and improve recovery afterwards. In this episode, five experts look at the costs, options, and challenges of investing in seismic retrofitting, and they discuss how retrofitting programs can help.

Janiele Maffei is chief mitigation officer and director of research at California Earthquake Authority. Among her responsibilities is managing the California Residential Mitigation Program, including the Earthquake Brace + Bolt residential retrofit program. (Bio)

Jessica Chappell is a licensed professional structural engineer in Utah and Alaska and has worked in structural engineering for over 20 years. She is a Principal at Structural Design Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah, and currently volunteers with the Utah Seismic Safety Commission (USSC), the Structural Engineers Association of Utah board (SEAU), Envision Utah, and the Cottonwood Heights City Planning Commission.

Amanda Hertzfeld is the Unreinforced Masonry Retrofit Program Manager for the City of Seattle, tasked with developing and implementing the policies required to retrofit the estimated 1100 URM structures in the city’s building stock. Prior to this role, she was the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Volcano Program Manager for FEMA’s Region X, which includes the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Shyann Hugoe and Barb Tobin are the Community Development Grant Specialists for Salt Lake City’s Fix the Bricks Program. The Fix the Bricks Program provides funding to Salt Lake City homeowners that live in unreinforced masonry homes (URMs) to help cover the cost of seismic retrofits. The program is a life safety program, and its purpose is to help reduce the number of deaths and injuries that can occur in an earthquake.

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

This episode looks at federal disaster loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) as a way to pay for post-earthquake repairs and other costs not covered by insurance—which could include the deductible of an earthquake insurance policy.

Corey Williams is a public information officer at the Small Business Administration’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a federal agency that supports U.S. small businesses by providing counseling, capital, and contracting expertise as well as disaster loans. SBA’s disaster assistance program also provides these loans to eligible homeowners and renters. Corey Williams has been with SBA since 2006.

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

The following episode features an interview with Kate Stillwell, founder of the parametric earthquake insurance company Jumpstart. The podcast explores what parametric earthquake insurance is and what role it could play in the recovery of households and communities after an earthquake.

Kate Stillwell is the founder of the parametric earthquake insurance company Jumpstart and President of Parametric Insurance at Neptune Flood Insurance. She has long been engaged in addressing disaster resilience, having begun her career as a structural engineer and earthquake risk consultant in California. She is also a co-founder of the US Resiliency Council, and a co-founder and acting CEO of Firebreak Risk, a consumer app for wildfire mitigation.

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

A type of insurance that will pay the policyholder a set amount when an earthquake meets the parameter spelled out in the policy. For example, the parameter might be the peak ground acceleration (PGA) at the insured property’s location, which is determined by the U.S. Geological Survey. The insurance payout depends on the event, not on the damage it causes, so there is no claims adjustment process.

Modified Mercalli Intensity: a scale for estimating the shaking intensity of an earthquake. Learn more from the U.S. Geological Survey. See also the descriptive examples on page 2 of this PDF from the Association of Bay Area Governments Resilience Program.

Parametric Insurance for Disasters, a Wharton Risk Center Primer by Rohini Sengupta and Carolyn Kousky (September 2020).

A New Option for Disaster Insurance: Parametric (United Policyholders)

Parametric Disaster Insurance (National Association of Insurance Commissioners)

Insure Against Earthquakes public information hub

Find info, videos, social media graphics and more to help you educate others about earthquake insurance and financial preparedness: Insure Against Earthquakes outreach & education toolkit

This episode explores what financing recovery can look like for individual households making an insurance claim or seeking disaster recovery assistance.

Amy Bach is the Executive Director and co-founder of United Policyholders, a California-based national non-profit that educates and advocates for policyholders on insurance coverage, the claim process, and public policy matters. United Policyholders runs initiatives focused on increasing disaster resiliency and insurance literacy. Ms. Bach is a professional consumer advocate, attorney and published author. She currently serves on the U.S. Treasury Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance, the Redwood Credit Union Board, and is an official consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Leesa O’Donnell Tomsett is Branch Chief of the Claims Branch at the Federal Insurance Directorate within FEMA’s Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, or FIMA. FIMA manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and a range of programs designed to mitigate against future losses from hazards including floods and earthquakes. Prior to joining FEMA in 2016, Ms. Tomsett worked for 44 years in the property and casualty insurance industry, where her activities included overseeing NFIP claims.

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

In this episode, guest host Althea Rizzo leads a discussion of the 2023 Hazus Estimated Annualized Earthquake Losses report, which provides a nation-wide view of rising earthquake risk and potential losses—information that can help disaster planners identify priorities, guide decision-making, and draw attention to the need for mitigation and recovery planning.

Jesse Rozelle is the Program Manager for the Natural Hazards Risk Assessment Program (NHRAP) within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  FEMA’s NHRAP team serve as subject matter experts in the development of methodological guidance, datasets, and risk assessment tools (including Hazus and the National Risk Index) for supporting emergency management and risk reduction decision making.  He was one of the co-principal Investigators of the Hazus Estimated Annualized Earthquake Losses report, published in April this year.

Kishor Jaiswal is Chief of the Engineering and Risk Project at the U.S. Geological Survey. As a research structural engineer, he leads the development of earthquake risk products for buildings and critical infrastructure, including casualty and economic loss estimation models. He was one of the principal Investigators of the Hazus Estimated Annualized Earthquake Losses report.

Althea Rizzo is the Geologic Hazards Program Coordinator at the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. She manages the state’s Earthquake, Tsunami and Volcano Program, including emergency planning, preparedness, response, mitigation, and public education. Her responsibilities range from serving on advisory boards and legislative task forces, to identifying vulnerabilities and developing programs to address them.

This Ready to Recover podcast was produced by CREW at crew.org with funding from FEMA through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.