| West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission in the news. |
Quaking? Time to get shaking
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - May 19, 2007
During their inaugural meeting Friday, members of the West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission were told to identify ways to help change perceptions that there is little the region can do to reduce the effects of a major earthquake.
"We've got to change that fatalism," state Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, told fellow commission members.
"Get the list together of all the things that you think need to be done, and let's put them down."
- Tom Charlier
For more news from the Greater Memphis area, visit our Web site at commercialappeal.com.
Edition: Final
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Index Terms: award
Record Number: 11948A0623BC6060
Copyright (c) 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
|
Seismic safety meeting Friday
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - May 14, 2007
Author: Tom Charlier
Region
The West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission will convene for its initial meeting Friday on the University of Memphis campus.
The session is set for 9 a.m.-noon in the Holiday Inn at U of M, 3700 Central.
The 12-member commission was appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen and legislative leaders to help the state develop a comprehensive program to prepare for and respond to a major earthquake.
Tom Charlier
Edition: First
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Record Number: 11923A8C918BF950
Copyright (c) 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
|
Quake planning: Is it enough?
Tennessean, The (Nashville, TN) - May 12, 2007
Author: STAFF
The very thought of Hurricane Katrina has grabbed the attention of emergency planners across the country. It is good to know that Tennessee is among them.
Portions of this state are highly vulnerable to an earthquake from the New Madrid fault, particularly Memphis and other parts of West Tennessee. The General Assembly recognizes this threat and acted last year to form a commission to look at preparedness. It is no coincidence that states and the federal government are paying more attention to emergency response after Katrina. Recent storms that devastated sites in the midsection of the country further add to the need to be ready to deal with disasters.
The state panel, formally called the West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission , filled primarily with people from Memphis and Shelby County, is scheduled to meet for the first time May 18. The legislation calling for the commission outlined issues the group should tackle. But it is in its early stages. Tennesseans need to see a thorough process from the panel, because no one should be left to wonder what sort of precautions are in place should a disaster anywhere close to the magnitude of a Katrina occur in this state.
It's not as though there is a void of study on earthquake potential. The Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis stands as a ready participant, knowledgeable and eager to be involved as both an academic and state institution. Tennessee should capitalize on the commitment and resources there.
The New Madrid Seismic Zone is getting attention nationally, as well. In a recent hearing in Congress, Harvey Johnson, deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, talked specifically about readiness planning for the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Johnson said that before hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA focused too much on response to a disaster. "We did not focus enough on preparing communities to make plans and preparations before a disaster strikes, nor on the most appropriate role of tribal, state and local governments afterwards," he said.
Johnson told Congress that FEMA has launched a disaster response initiative to focus on a "no-notice" major earthquake in the New Madrid zone. That zone travels along a 150-mile fault that involves Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas and Missouri. While Tennessee is taking appropriate steps to address a possible quake, the number of states that could be affected clearly shows why federal officials have a vital interest. Johnson noted that an earthquake would have a wide-ranging impact on security, infrastructure and the economy. Some of the largest quakes in the continental United States happened along the New Madrid fault in 1811-1812.
Meanwhile, parallel efforts are being discussed, including a system for approving helpers such as medical providers to practice with full authority in another state on short notice. That issue is being addressed in the General Assembly, as well as in other states.
This Seismic Safety Commission is charged with setting goals and priorities in both the public and private sectors; requesting agencies to develop a strategy to promote safety ; review recovery and reconstruction efforts; gather information; encourage research; coordinate activities at all levels; and build relationships among the various organizations involved.
Most of the commission 's work should come from common sense: Anticipate problems, discuss readiness and set up a system to coordinate activities on the front end, proactively rather than simply responding after the fact. A lot of people learned that lesson the hard way from hurricanes. Tennessee is just one of many states, along with the federal government, who should see the stakes involved and be prepared, should the worst happen.
Edition: 1ST
Section: Main News
Page: 14A
Record Number: nsh31090474
Copyright (c) The Tennessean. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
|
Seismic Safety Commission to lead regional planning
Tennessean, The (Nashville, TN) - May 12, 2007
Author: READERS, JIM KYLE
By STATE SEN. JIM KYLE
Experts predict that the next serious earthquake in Tennessee will occur in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
While only a portion of this zone falls in Tennessee, a New Madrid quake could have a crushing impact on our state. We only have to look at our history to get a picture of this impact's severity. The great earthquakes from 1811-1812 were the largest in U.S. history in terms of area damaged. Estimates are that these three quakes hit 7.5 on the Richter Magnitude Scale, and their aftershocks were felt for years.
Is Tennessee prepared for earthquakes of this scope today? Last year, the General Assembly created the West Tennessee Seismic Commission to analyze this question. The commission , which will meet for the first time May 18 in Memphis, is charged with an enormous task affecting every Tennessean.
The commission will serve as a regional planning organization, working with the data and support provided by the Center for Earthquake Research and Information.
The first goal of the commission is to assess Tennessee's current earthquake preparedness. It will then produce a detailed response plan, including instructions on coordinating efforts by local and state government agencies and volunteer groups. The commission must set goals for both the public and private sectors, recommend program changes to all entities involved, review the recovery and reconstruction efforts after damaging earthquakes, and coordinate earthquake safety activities of governmental agencies, schools, businesses and everyday citizens.
Having an informed public ready to respond to an earthquake is essential. Appropriate information needs to be made available to the public. We must build structurally sound buildings and bridges. If we prepare now, we can reduce the number of injuries and deaths, the number of damaged structures, and the adverse economic consequences of an earthquake. The Seismic Commission will review our current level of preparedness for major earthquakes and make recommendations to reduce the impact such catastrophes could have on the people of Tennessee.
We have seen the destruction of recent earthquakes in California and Japan, and we saw the devastation that nature can cause in Hurricane Katrina and the recent Kansas tornadoes. Tennessee needs to learn from these disasters, which demonstrated the significant burden placed on families, businesses and governmental agencies. We must be prepared for disaster. Earthquake damage can be greatly reduced or managed if the proper policies and procedures are in place.
We know the region is at risk. We know another catastrophic quake is inevitable. What we do not know is when it will strike. The West Tennessee Seismic Commission will do everything in its power to ensure that we are properly educated, equipped and prepared to respond appropriately.
Contact state Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis at sen.jim.kyle@legislature.state.tn.us.
Edition: 1ST
Section: Main News
Page: 14A
Record Number: nsh31090506
Copyright (c) The Tennessean. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
|
Seismic safety panel to meet soon -- Will review disaster plans, building standards
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - April 29, 2007
Author: Tom Charlier charlier@commercialappeal.com
A year after its inception in the legislature, Tennessee's first commission devoted to dealing with earthquake hazards is about to begin reviewing building codes, disaster preparations and public-education efforts.
The West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission is slated to conduct its first meeting next month following the recent appointment of 12 members by Gov. Phil Bredesen and legislative leaders.
The commission was established under a bill approved last year as concerns over natural disasters were mounting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It is empowered to accept grants, hire experts, gather information, make recommendations and conduct various other tasks related to seismic safety .
The appointees, most of them from Shelby County, represent professional fields ranging from architecture to insurance to public utilities.
They say there's no set agenda of priorities yet for the commission .
"The governor's given us a lot of latitude to do whatever it is we need to do," said Scott Fleming, president of Fleming Associates Architects in Memphis.
But Fleming and other members say building codes likely will be an early focus.
Memphis and Shelby County officials long have wrestled with the difficulty of setting codes that protect against the risk posed by the New Madrid fault zone without driving up the costs of development excessively.
Local building codes didn't require designs to resist earthquake forces until 1992. Two years ago, the city and county adopted changes requiring all new "essential facilities" to be constructed to the updated seismic standards of the 2003 International Building Code.
But other facilities remain subject to the less-stringent 1999 Standard Building Code.
Commission appointee Ted Fox, public works director for Shelby County, said it's time to look again at the codes.
"They need to be reviewed and strengthened," he said.
Fox said the commission also can work to strengthen the links between elected officials and emergency-management agencies to ensure "everybody knows how the system works."
Public education should be another priority for the commission , members say.
During the winter of 1811-12, the New Madrid zone produced some of the most powerful quakes known to have struck the continental United States, and the region is believed at risk for moderate but still-dangerous temblors that occur more frequently than the major ones.
Appointee Clifford DeBerry, director of analysis, strategy and performance at Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, said the commission needs to review utilities, bridges and other vital facilities to ensure their readiness for a quake.
"We need to be proactive about what happens, not reactive," DeBerry said.
- Tom Charlier: 529-2572
--------------------
Commission appointees
Elaine M. Clyburn, Memphis
Clifford DeBerry, Collierville
Scott Fleming, Memphis
Ted Fox, Arlington (Shelby County public works director)
Richard Holliday, Cordova
Barry W. Moore, Collierville
Shahram Pezeshk, Collierville (University of Memphis)
Eugene "Buddy" Schweig, Memphis (U.S. Geological Survey)
Jim Strickland, Memphis attorney
Janice Millsaps, State Farm, Murfreesboro
State. Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis
Franklin Smith, Haywood County executive
--------------------
Edition: Final
Section: Metro
Page: B6
Index Terms: appointment namelist disaster agency safety first meeting tn
Record Number: 118D9D2C96720478
Copyright (c) 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
|
Katrina's lessons for Memphis
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - August 29, 2006
Gulf Coast residents have almost too much to deal with as the recovery continues from Hurricane Katrina's fierce landing one year ago today and the 2006 hurricane season heats up.
Across the Mid-South, it's always earthquake season, however, and in some ways the problem is just as pressing: Every 500 years or so, experts say, the nearby New Madrid seismic zone can produce - with no warning - an event like the earthquakes that rocked the area in the early 1800s and that could claim thousands of lives.
Lessons learned from the Katrina disaster, however, have contributed to government's understanding of how to respond to a catastrophic event and boosted long-delayed improvements in disaster preparedness. Among the lessons:
Good government begins with motivated, energetic people fully engaged in their jobs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked at the bottom in a 2003 "good places to work" survey by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the U.S. Coast Guard, which got high marks for its post-Katrina rescue work.
The importance of getting information quickly to emergency responders about the well-being of their own families. Some of the chaos in New Orleans can be attributed to the decision by some New Orleans police officers and other authorities to abandon their posts to check on loved ones. If they could be assured through a central information system that family members were safe in predetermined shelters, they would stay on the job and respond more effectively.
The need to accommodate the pets of residents who evacuate. Some Gulf Coast residents were reluctant to evacuate before the storm because there were no arrangements for pets.
The need to develop shelters that can serve for the long term, avoiding some of the problems associated with the exodus of so many Gulf Coast and New Orleans residents from the region.
The need for "inter-operability" of radio networks among emergency responders, who must be able to communicate with each other to be effective. Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration has set aside $6 million to start that process.
The need for an organization to coordinate earthquake preparedness. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Tennessee General Assembly this year created the Seismic Safety Commission to handle that mission.
Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from Katrina is the development of a mindset that accepts equipment and personnel investments that may not pay off immediately but will be worth a great deal when disaster strikes. Long-term investments - whether they're in sturdier levees or better communication equipment or more highly motivated government employees - are not an easy sell. But to avoid the kinds of scenes witnessed in the days after Katrina made landfall, the investments will have to be made.
--------------------
Hurricane bears a message that easily transfers
Here the big threat is from an earthquake, but many of the same principles apply.
--------------------
Edition: Final
Section: Viewpoint
Page: A6
Record Number: 113D31E3E0BB6118
Copyright (c) 2006 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
|
Katrina reveals flaws in Mid-South's disaster plans -- Storm spurs emergency agencies to envision catastrophic events
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - August 28, 2006
Author: Tom Charlier charlier@commercialappeal.com
Hurricane Katrina didn't shatter any levees or neighborhoods in the Memphis area, but in its wake some of the presumptions guiding disaster preparations here were swept away like beach bungalows in a storm surge.
Laying bare a myriad of inadequacies on the Gulf Coast, the storm prompted Tennessee to expedite the upgrade of a flawed emergency-communications system. And it spurred the General Assembly to create a Seismic Safety Commission to prepare the state for earthquakes.
More than anything, however, Katrina forced state and local emergency officials to look at disasters beyond the scale of events like the July 2003 wind storm in Shelby County. It made them envision the prospect of a widespread catastrophe.
"It completely changed our planning process," said Cecil Whaley, director of planning, training and exercises for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
"It (Katrina) gave us the opportunity to go back and spend more time on a catastrophic type of event. By looking at the catastrophes you expand yourself into areas you don't look at because they don't happen very frequently."
The catastrophic event most likely in the Memphis area isn't a hurricane but an earthquake. Researchers believe that on an average of every 500 years or so the nearby New Madrid seismic zone can produce a magnitude-7 or above quake - an event that could kill thousands if it occurred today.
Although that kind of calamity would differ greatly from a monster hurricane such as Katrina - primarily because there would be no warning - authorities say there are similarities in preparing for each.
Among the lessons that can be drawn from Katrina, they say, is the need to make arrangements allowing emergency-responders to check on the well-being of their families. In the aftermath of Katrina, some New Orleans police officers and other authorities abandoned their posts out of concern for their loved ones.
"It's an honest fact that if I'm concerned with my family and how they're getting along, then I'm not going to be focused on saving someone else's family," said Randall Roby, planning officer with the Memphis-Shelby County Emergency Management Agency.
To deal with those concerns, the Mid-South Association of Chiefs of Police is developing a plan in which the families of "first-responders" would report to predetermined shelters in the event of a disaster.
"The first-responders then could have one location to call and have their family members checked on," Roby said.
Reassured of their families' safety , "they could be on the street and thinking about the task at hand."
Another lesson gleaned from Katrina was the need to accommodate the pets of residents who evacuate. Authorities on the Gulf Coast had trouble persuading many residents to evacuate before the storm because there were no arrangements for pets.
"Pets that are left behind can die and cause disease, and also people won't leave their pets behind," said State Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, who has worked with local authorities on the problem.
Sammy Crews, exercise officer for the local emergency management agency, said pet-sheltering had been included in the county's basic disaster plan. But in the wake of Katrina, it's likely to get a greater emphasis.
"That's something we're looking at," Crews said.
Katrina, which delivered to Tennessee some 58,000 evacuees from the Gulf Coast, also underscored among planners the need to develop the capacity to provide long-term sheltering.
Unlike the case in smaller-scale disasters, which require only a few days of shelter for evacuees, many of the people fleeing Katrina remained in shelters run by the state, American Red Cross or faith-based organizations for six weeks or more.
In addition to prompting revisions of plans, the televised images of chaos in Katrina's aftermath spurred action on proposals that had been languishing.
One example is in communications. As is the case in many parts of the nation, emergency agencies in Tennessee lacked "inter-operability" in their radio networks - meaning they couldn't talk to one another.
Whaley said the state had been waiting for funding assistance from the federal Department of Homeland Security to upgrade communications. But after Katrina, Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration set aside $6 million to get the process started.
"After Katrina, he (Bredesen) said the state needs to step up and take the responsibility," Whaley said.
The equipment being purchased includes portable repeater systems, which have their own power supplies and serve as temporary base stations during emergencies. They sort out different frequencies so that police officers, firefighters, National Guardsmen and other responders can talk to one another.
Another proposal that was given a major push by Katrina is a statewide commission to coordinate efforts to prepare for earthquakes. Kernell, along with State Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, finally got a bill through the General Assembly this year creating the Seismic Safety Commission .
The commission will have 12 members encompassing a wide range of expertise. Working with the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis, its charge is to "initiate a comprehensive program to prepare the state for responding to a major earthquake," according to the legislation.
"We tried to pass it before, but it never got anywhere until Katrina," Kernell said of the proposal. "Katrina really gave it some legs."
Despite the lessons from Katrina that have been incorporated, local disaster preparations still have some deep-seated flaws, according to a recent study.
A classified report for the Department of Homeland Security says emergency management agencies in Shelby and other counties in Tennessee aren't given high enough priority in the local-government structure.
The city-county Emergency Management Agency ranks no higher than the Center for Neighborhoods and the Office of Multi-Cultural and Religious Affairs in the organizational chart of city government.
The county's organizational chart rates it no more important than the Real Estate and Weights and Measures departments.
"Existing emergency management agencies are understaffed and also are layered too deeply inside the local government organization to be operationally effective," said the report, a portion of which was shared with The Commercial Appeal.
Claude Talford, director of the local agency, said his office still is able to get the job done.
"We know we have a good plan in place. We know we have people in place to do the job," he said.
But as Talford, Kernell and others point out, the key lesson from Katrina is that a sound response to catastrophes doesn't rest on a single plan or agency.
"All three levels - federal, state and local - didn't interact correctly" during Katrina, Kernell said. "Just having a plan in a drawer is not going to do it."
- Tom Charlier: 529-2572
--------------------
A storm remembered
Today: How lessons learned from Katrina might save lives here.
Inside: Gulf Coast tourist attractions rebounding slowly. A7
Tropical Storm Ernesto threatens Florida Keys. A7
Coming up
Tuesday: In search of the spirit of New Orleans.
Wednesday in Food: Katrina evacuees who came to Memphis and stayed in the restaurant business.
Online
"We live in Memphis now, but we're from New Orleans." Go to iDivamemphis.com to read stories from evacuees in their own words, and add your own.
--------------------
|
|