Earthquake and tsunami retrofit and loading

I finally read through "Retrofit Design of Mosques as Vertical Evacuation Structures", a booklet put together by some of my friends in our Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) spring design class last year. Here's a link for it: http://www.stanford.edu/~biscombe/Final%20Brochure.pdf.

It goes through:

1. What a vertical evacuation structure is, why a mosque would be ideal, and how you can strengthen it to withstand the earthquake and consequent tsunami loads.

Vertical evacuation means going into the upper stories of a building or on top of a tall hill to avoid the tsunami waves. This is necessary when the water come far enough inland that you might not have time to evacuation horizontally (away from the shore). Mosques are good because people tend to go to religious buildings or community centers after a disaster. Retrofitting means fixing current deficiencies in a structure to make it strong enough for its desired purpose.

2. Initial site and building evaluation.

Is the building tall enough that people would be above the predicted wave height? Are the doors and stairways wide enough for large groups of people to get in quickly? Is there enough space to hold all the people who want to take refuge there? What are the predicted shaking and water levels at this site? All of these factors determine whether the building has potential to be a vertical evacuation structure.

3. Structural evaluation.

Are the floors, beams, and columns strong enough to hold all the refugees? Will the building survive the earthquake, and will it look undamaged enough to inspire confidence as a vertical evacuation structure? Can it withstand wave and debris loading from the tsunami? What method of analysis should you use?

4. Evaluation of retrofit options

What methods are most cost-effective for the current deficiencies? What methods will limit downtime of the building during construction?

You should check it out!


Also there's this document which is referenced a lot in the booklet and has soo much information about tsunamis:

FEMA P646, "Guidelines for Design of Structures for Vertical Evacuation from Tsunamis": http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=3463

Other FEMA documents: http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/earthquake/professionals.shtm

This includes stuff about new buildings, retrofits of old buildings (and specifically schools, hospitals, etc), performance based engineering, homeowner's guides, and information about nonstructural components (which contribute a lot to the total monetary losses after earthquakes.. ceiling tiles falling, glass breaking, etc), and lifelines (roadways that allow emergency response vehicles to get in, telephone lines, water lines, etc).