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Natural Hazard Series
Reducing America´s Risk, Part II: Earthquakes& Tsunamis

Second in the 2005 "Natural Hazards Science - Reducing America´s Risk" series

Other Science, Society, Solutions Briefings

		May 13, 2005
		10:00 a.m.
				Pat Leahy U.S. Geological Survey Brian Atwater U.S. Geological Survey Stephanie Fritts Pacific County Emergency Management Agency Stacy Bartoletti Degenkolb Engineers
		Rayburn House Office Building Room 2325 Washington, DC
	www.usgs.gov/solutions

Science Used to Assess Earthquakes and Tsunamis Can Help Keep America Safe

Today, more Americans are at risk from being severely affected by natural hazards than at any other time in our nation's history. In the United States each year, natural hazards cause numerous deaths and cost billions of dollars in disaster aid, disruption of commerce, and destruction of homes and critical infrastructure. Although we have reduced the number of lives lost to natural hazards each year, the economic cost of major disaster response and recovery continues to rise. Each decade, property damage from natural hazards doubles or triples in constant dollars. The United States is second only to Japan in economic damages resulting from natural disasters. Learn how USGS science helps emergency managers and engineers prepare for natural disasters, and thus reduce economic costs to communities.

Powerpoints presented at the May 13, 2005 briefing:
Brian Atwater: The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 (2.5 MB) Stacy Bartoletti: Real World Applications of USGS EQ Science (3.6 MB) Stephanie Fritts: Pacific County, WA (1.3 MB) Pat Leahy: Earthquakes & Tsunamis (4.1 MB)	PDF (1 MB)
Congressional Sponsors: The following links leave the USGS site.	Hosted by:
Senator Maria Cantwell Senator Jim Demint Senator Gordon Smith Representative James Moran	National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Coalition

Speaker Biographies

Pat Leahy

Dr. P. Patrick Leahy is Associate Director for Geology of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). He has responsibility for Federal basic earth science programs, which include worldwide earthquake hazards monitoring and research, geologic mapping of land and seafloor resources, volcano and landslide hazards, and assessments of energy and mineral resources. He is also responsible for all international activities conducted by the USGS. Dr. Leahy has been with USGS since 1974. He is a Fellow in the Geological Society of America and is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute of Hydrology, Sigma XI, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Geological Society of Washington. He was selected by the National Academy of Science to head the U.S. delegation to the 30th International Geological Congress in Beijing, China, in August 1996, and as a U.S. delegate to the 31st International Geological Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2000.

Brian Atwater

Brian Atwater has been a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey since 1973. His early work defined the frequency of catastrophic ice-age floods from Montana and the postglacial rise of sea level in California. He is best known for using coastal geology to redefine earthquake and tsunami hazards in Washington, Oregon, and northern California. He made comparative studies in Alaska and Chile and worked for a year in Japan. His publications include a public safety booklet, "Surviving a Tsunami—Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan." His USGS monograph on great earthquakes in Washington State won the Kirk Bryan award of the Geological Society of America. Brian was born in Connecticut and educated at Stanford and the University of Delaware. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington.

Stephanie Fritts

Stephanie K. Fritts serves as the Emergency Management and E911 Coordinator for Pacific County, Washington. She views local emergency managers as primary partners in emergency services and recognizes that it is the day-to-day efforts to prepare local communities to deal with all hazards that make the people of Pacific County safer. Ms. Fritts has developed tsunami evacuation plans, routes, and public education campaigns in regard to the tsunami hazard within the local community. Ms. Fritts has also worked with the county and local cities to complete the criteria necessary to be designated a "Tsunami Ready" community. Ms. Fritts received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Business Administration from Linfield College and worked several years for businesses such as Dayton Hudson Corporation and May Company. After leaving the corporate environment, she has worked in local emergency services since 1983 and for the Pacific County Emergency Management Agency since 1997.

Stacy Bartoletti

Stacy James Bartoletti is a Principal and Group Director with Degenkolb Engineers in their Seattle, Washington, office. He is a registered structural engineer in the states of Washington, California, and Oregon. Mr. Bartoletti received his BS degree in civil engineering from Purdue University and his MS degree in civil engineering with an emphasis on structures from the University of Texas at Austin. He is an active member of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW), the Structural Engineers Association of Washington, and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). He has extensive experience in the design of new building structures and the seismic evaluation, analysis, and upgrade of existing building structures and nonstructural components. Stacy has actively participated in the development of the CREW Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake Scenario as well as the EERI Seattle Fault Scenario. (Stacy James Bartoletti, Degenkolb Engineers, 720 Third Avenue, Suite 1420, Seattle, WA 98104, (206) 262-9240, sbartol@degenkolb.com).

For information on Reducing America´s Risk Briefings on Capitol Hill, please call 703-648-4455.