[CEUS-earthquake-hazards] Societal Implications of Performance Based Earthquake Engineering

[Goldfarb, Lawrence]

Joe:
I tend to agree with some of your points. However this point seemed to
pique my interest, "The government can claim the right to mandate safety
but how does the government obtain the right to dictate minimum risk in
the reduction of private property loss?" I guess until Katrina I would
not have thought too much about this. However, who is now responsible
for housing so many people whose lives have been saved, but are now
living for over 2-1/2 years in trailers"? If hypothetically, a large
magnitude earthquake were to occur on the New Madrid Fault Zone, how
many more trailers would be needed"? 
This is a big issue going forward for other hazards as well. One that
comes to mind is the new levee certification process now being carried
out by the Corps of Engineers. The new levee certification evaluation
process (especially after a 2 year provisional period) is going to
generate a lot of additional FEMA flood plain areas. These maps are
similarly drawn up using probabilistic methods from the Hydrologic and &
Hydraulic (H&H) studies. To me, rising water generally leads to personal
property damage and/or loss more so than loss of life. Do you think it
is the government's job to mandate this, or should they just let the
owner's decide?" However, at some point the public will probably have to
turn to some entity to blame as well as for support . Who do you suppose
that will be?
Larry 


CDM

Lawrence P. Goldfarb, P.E.
Sr. Geotechnical Engineer , Group Leader
3130 Fairview Park Drive
Falls Church, VA 22042-4517


Phone: (703) 485-8500
Direct:  (703) 485-8434
Cell:     (703) 408-7282
Fax:     (703) 698-1250


E-mail: goldfarblp at cdm.com

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