Hi, everyone. I’m Maggie Ortiz-Millan, senior program
manager at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
I manage our Learning from Earthquakes program,
and I’m the lead staff for response to earthquakes.
I’ll be talking about how EERI responds to earthquakes
in general and in California specifically.
I want to start by saying a few words about EERI
for those who may not be familiar.
The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is the leading
nonprofit membership organization that connects those dedicated to
reducing earthquake risk. Our multidisciplinary members
include engineers, geoscientists, social scientists, architects, planners,
emergency managers, academics, students,
and many other like-minded professionals.
EERI is managed by a small staff based in Oakland, California.
If you’re interested in learning more about EERI or would like to become
a member, you can visit EERI.org for more information.
EERI responds to earthquakes through our
Learning from Earthquakes program, or LFE.
Through LFE, EERI has been deploying reconnaissance teams to
study earthquake impacts since 1948. EERI leverages our multidisciplinary
international membership to document the impacts of earthquakes around
the world and to achieve the program mission of accelerating and increasing
learning from earthquake-induced disasters that affect the natural,
built, social, and political environments worldwide.
EERI has responded to over 300 earthquakes around the world.
In addition to team-based reconnaissance studies,
for U.S. earthquakes, EERI also has specific
responsibilities as part of the NEHRP post-earthquake coordination plan.
Under the current USGS Circular 1242, EERI has the following roles in
U.S. earthquake technical response. Along with federal and state partners,
to determine if the earthquake is significant and warrants
the implementation of all or part of the plan.
To compile and link to earthquake information from the earthquake.
To compile and link to engineering information from the earthquake.
To work with federal and state agencies to organize a field
technical clearinghouse. And, along with USGS,
to publish an event summary report within three months of the event.
In states with their own clearinghouse plan,
EERI may have additional roles for earthquakes in that state.
As Cindy described, in California, the California Earthquake
Clearinghouse is responsible for managing a technical clearinghouse
following an earthquake. EERI serves as vice chair of the
California Earthquake Clearinghouse, and in that role, we support the
clearinghouse activation in California in the following ways.
By establishing a virtual clearinghouse website.
By staffing a physical clearinghouse location.
By connecting and coordinating the engineering response and investigators.
By hosting nightly briefings and coordination calls.
By sharing engineering observations and data with
data coordination efforts led by the California Geological Survey.
And by maintaining the California Earthquake Clearinghouse website.
In addition to supporting a California Earthquake
Clearinghouse activation, EERI may also deploy
a reconnaissance team to investigate specific impacts of an earthquake.
I want to end with an example of EERI’s most recent response to
an earthquake in California – the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence.
EERI’s response to this earthquake was mainly in support of the California
Earthquake Clearinghouse activation. In support of the clearinghouse,
EERI established the virtual Earthquake Clearinghouse website
for the sequence to collect and share preliminary observations.
Several EERI staff traveled to Ridgecrest to staff
the physical clearinghouse location along with CGS.
The physical location was open for one week with more than
60 people checking into the clearinghouse.
EERI hosted regular evening briefing calls to share preliminary
field observations. Briefings were held daily
while the physical location was open and continued less frequently
for several weeks after the physical location was closed.
Over 120 people participated in the 10 briefings, either in person or remotely.
EERI also supported data coordination efforts led by CGS and the USGS
by collecting and sharing data and observations from engineering teams.
In addition to the clearinghouse response, EERI also coordinated
several fallout activities to support the dissemination of observations
and findings to the broader community.
EERI hosted a reconnaissance briefing webinar one month after the earthquake
to share preliminary findings. We also published an earthquake
reconnaissance report which compiled summaries of the
multidisciplinary observations from the earthquake.
And finally, eight months after the sequence began,
EERI hosted special sessions on the earthquake sequence
as part of the 2020 National Earthquake Conference.
The Ridgecrest earthquake sequence virtual Earthquake Clearinghouse
website contains links to all products from these activities and will serve
as a long-time archive of this – long-term archive of this information.
The Ridgecrest clearinghouse activation was similar to the
clearinghouse activation for the 2014 South Napa earthquake.
EERI’s response to a future earthquake in northern California would likely
be similar to the Ridgecrest and South Napa earthquake activations.
Thank you for your attention. If you’re interested in learning more
about EERI or our LFE program or the California Earthquake Clearinghouse,
you can visit the links on this slide. I’m looking forward to the panel
discussion and your questions. Thank you.