19 Nov. 2010, Build Boston C39 Reaction, response, and preparation for natural disasters in Chile and in Haiti/pg. 1
Cliff Pearson
I think we saw some stragglers coming in. This is C39 from 1:30 to 3:30, Response and Responsibility. We're going to be talking about disaster relief, emergency architecture, and originally we were going to be talking about three different places.
First of all, I'm Cliff Pearson. I'm a deputy editor at Architectural Record, and I've been working with Estelle Jackson for about ten years on this Response and Responsibility committee that meets usually in June at the BSA headquarters. We get a roundtable discussion with about 15, 20 people together, and we invite anyone who wants to come. And we talk about international practice.
And the last couple of years, we've been talking a lot about how architects can help in places in the world that are hit by either natural or manmade disasters. And there's a growing interest in this field of architecture, I know amongst practitioners, but also in schools. When I go to architecture schools, there's a real growing concern about how they can have a real impact on the way people live. They want to go to places where they feel that their skills can make a real difference.
And it's really great to see this social consciousness on the part of younger architects and architecture students, that they don't want to just sit back in their affluent communities and work on fancy houses for rich people. They really want to go out to where they see the need for architecture. That architecture isn't just about creating beautiful forms, but it's about shaping the way people live. [Audience question inaudible] This is the international practice.
Estelle Jackson
International Committee. [inaudible] come, and I hopefully will. We meet once a month. You'll find it in the Bulletin. In June we have a forum which Cliff was just talking about, which is called the Response and Responsibility roundtable, and it's 24 people who are invited to come.
It's a completely open forum and very frank, and we have representatives from Washington and from other policy agencies who are there answering questions. And if we can't find the answer at that table, we'll find it afterwards, and we'll put you in contact with the policy people who can help. One of whom is Jim Thall [name?], who is representing the Department of Commerce.
So we work with them, we work with the International Trade Administration, with Small Business Administration, the State Department, USAID, the UN, and just about anybody. We open doors and we try to find answers for you. We don't try to sort of become heroes or become big egos. We try to find answers.
Cliff Pearson
What it also does is, it helps open architects' eyes to the services that actually our government provides. And a lot of times, American architects are doing projects abroad. A lot of times they're just small firms.
And they don't realize that there's all sorts of things that the U.S. government can do to help them. The Department of Commerce is out there. They provide all sorts of facilities for connecting you to potential clients, helping you understand the economic situation. There are trade missions. There's all sorts of things that your tax dollars are providing that you might as well take advantage of.
And it can be a real eye-opener to know that the U.S. government actually is there to help you. And a lot of times, especially small professionals like architects don't understand that they can tap into these great resources.
Today we were hoping to look at three different places in the world -- Haiti, Mexico, and Chile. We're going to start with a sort of general discussion about emergency response, in terms of architectural services.
And then at two o'clock, we're going to go to Santiago, Chile, where one of Jim Paul's colleagues at the Department of Commerce is going to give us a little briefing on the situation there, opportunities for American architects helping out. Obviously there was an earthquake in Chile earlier this year. There are still three out of the five provinces that still need a lot of help out there. So we'll get a briefing there.
And then we're going to talk about Haiti and the situation there. In Mexico, we may be getting a call from another person from the Department of Commerce. That's still up in the air, due to some scheduling conflicts, but we may be able to tap into someone there as well.
So what I'd like to do is just talk a little bit for about 20-25 minutes about what can architects do ahead of time to prepare for emergencies, instead of always just responding at the last minute? How can architects organize to be prepared for the next disaster?
On my far right is Jaime Canavis [name?], who is a professor at FloridaInternationalUniversity, and is a man of the world and is a jack of all trades, an architect, a planner, amateur diplomat, and just a great person and an amazing resource. So maybe, Jaime, you can sort of start the conversation a little bit about how can architects be prepared ahead of time? And what they can do so that they're actually more useful when a disaster does strict.
Jaime Canavis
All right. I'll start explaining a little bit what we're trying to do in the state of Florida, and I would like to clarify that I am not faking my accent to sound a little bit more international. This is my true accent, and perhaps one of the reasons that they bring me to this in a committee.
Estelle Jackson
He's our credibility [inaudible].
Jaime Canavis
InFlorida, after the impact of Andrew, there were a tremendous amount of changes in the code, realizing that even though we had quite a bit of experience, or we thought we did, handling hurricanes, we had never experienced something of that magnitude. And to give you a little bit of a background, there were quite a bit of code regulations, especially in South Florida, to protect us from hurricanes, from strong winds. But they were up to 120 miles an hour, was what the -- what was considered the level of magnitude that we should be protected from. And Andrew had winds of up to, in certain cases, 150, 160 miles per hour. And then everyone realized, if it happened at 160 miles an hour, that does not mean that in the future, may not happen, may not be a little bit worse.
And even now -- they have done a lot more research now and so on, and realized that even within certain magnitude there are other forces that may go up to 200 miles an hour. And so, after Andrew, there were a tremendous amount of changes in the code. There were also tremendous amount of changes in the building department, in all the building departments in South Florida, because almost everyone blamed the building departments. And the building departments said, "Oh, we're going to be blamed? You want us to be strict?" And now they are extremely strict.
It's very healthy. Not only they are strict in the inspection, they are very strict in the minimum standards and details that you have to provide for drawings and so on. And so, for the architectural profession to be completely honest, it's been a blessing in the sense that now you cannot simply do two or three pages of drawing and that's it. No matter how small, whatever you're doing, there has to be a tremendous amount of specifications, calculations, and so on.
So that's to give you a little bit of background. What we're trying to do at this point, and this is the Florida AIA, it's trying to push legislature in Florida to come up with a safety assessment program similar to the one they have in California, and it comes from the Governor's Office of Emergency Services in California, and I can show you my ID card with my picture and so on.
This would only work in California, but if we are able to establish this in the state of Florida, you take a short, intensive course of about six hours, and basically, if you are an architect, an engineer, they feel that you are prepared enough that with six hours they can give you an intensive course, or you can go up to specially residential areas and analyze structures, mostly houses, and be able thoroughly quick to identify that house as being unsafe, partially safe, or totally safe.
And in this program, that is done in about 15 to 20 minutes per house. It's basically a visual inspection. But it's in a way a voluntary assessment of the condition of the house. And then it's up to the resident to decide to live, to stay, or, in a case that they were evacuated, to let them know if we feel that the house is safe or not.
There's not any type of enforcement on our part, and we do it in a way that the house is tagged on the outside with a red, yellow, or a green card. So it's easy to identify to anyone that might be able to come to the house.
The advantage of this program is that, ahead of time, they have a list of people that are available that are easy to contact, and they had a certain amount of training, not only in being able to assess the houses, but also of how to prepare yourself to go to a place that it's under these types of conditions. And the idea is that not only we can do this in Florida, we are also beginning to look at the possibility of some day being able to do it in Cuba and also be able to help all through Latin America and the Caribbean and any other state that may need our help.
The only advantage of the legislature approving this is that when there is any type of disaster, the afterward of the disaster becomes fairly chaotic, and you don't know who's there to help, who's there to do more damage, who's there simply for the fun of it. And what the ID does for you is give you access, and they know that you're supposed to be there.
Cliff Pearson
So the first response is assessment. Assessing the situation, making sure that any structures that are unsound or unsafe are at least tagged and identified as such. After assessment, what comes next?
Jaime Canavis
Well, in our particular training, that's the basic thing, because in cases of hurricanes, it's not only the damage that happens during the hurricanes. It's the damage afterwards. And a lot of times, the continued rain may do quite a bit more damage five days after and so on.
Now, this program is designed for that short time. There are all the programs in Florida, and especially in South Florida. Our university, at least we have a hurricane center now, doing all kinds of research for prevention. There have been a lot of regulation changing the design of roofing houses, because we were always designing for the impact of the wind. And after doing research and tests and they have these huge engines and fans that create winds up to 200 miles an hour, they have realized that the suction effect a lot of times is as critical or more critical.
Because, again, everything is designed to receive the impact. Very few things were designed thinking of a suction type of effect. So those are things that happen in evacuation. They have learned a tremendous amount of studies, because places like Key West, I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but there's only one road going out of Key West. It is now a double lane and sometimes triple lane.
But at one time you're trying to evacuate, everyone, and hurricanes, we have the advantage of having a warning. But then that warning is, we think that it's going to come. It might, it might not. So usually, most people evacuate at the very last minute. So you have only one road and everyone trying to get out of there. And even in the Miami area, the main roads out are two or three.
Cliff Pearson
Now, do you find that the training that you get for, let's say, hurricane disasters, is that applicable to a situation like in Haiti, where they were hit by an earthquake?
Jaime Canavis
Yes. The training is mostly to assess a structure after they had some sort of an impact. So basically, it doesn't make any difference if it's earthquake, fire, or something else. And it's a very quick evaluation. But we do feel that as architects, we know enough to visually say, hey, we recommend you to get out. Or you may stay in that part of the house, but not on this other one in here. Or we don't see any serious damage at this point, so feel free to stay.
Estelle Jackson
Jaime, does the public have access to these appraisers or assessors before an earthquake or before a disaster, so that they can say, "Gee, is my house safe? Should I produce something to bring my house up to safety measure?"
Jaime Canavis
The program is not designed for that. But it's an excellent idea. In most of the United States with the codes that we have, you know, unless it's by abandonment, usually structures are safe. But we may be able to go to other places where they do not have the same type of codes and help. That's an excellent idea, but this program is not specifically for that.
Estelle Jackson
It would give your people a chance to prepare for what they're doing as well, for after the disaster, so this way they would be familiar with various and sundry areas. We have a question in the back.
Cliff Pearson
So the man in the back. And feel free, the whole idea of this session is we're all involved and we want people to just be able to get up. But if you do have a question, just please speak into the microphone.
Dario Damar
Yeah, my name's Dario Damar. I'm an architect, licensed in Florida and California and 47 other states. We do disaster recovery and planning for our customers, which is primarily media facilities, because they are so instrumental in guiding people after a disaster in what to do. For example, newspapers. one of the questions I have is, if you go in and assess red, green, or yellow, is there a liability associated with that? Because now you're telling a guy, "Your house is safe." You get another storm, it falls down, "This guy said my house was safe." And again, you have to look at that, because with our company doing these, we're acutely aware of the responsibility.
We also do what's called building hardening studies, so that we do prepare ahead of time for some of the things that you don't even think about. You have electricity but you don't have water, for example, so can you store the water somewhere to run your systems, to get out the paper to warn the people or tell the people what do you do, where do I get food, where do I get shelter, where do I get water?
So that whole communications thing is a big deal, all the way down to your key players that are involved in helping recover from a disaster. You have to take care of their selves first, for example. We've had people not show up because they had a dog at home. So you've got to get a dog-sitter, so that the person that's responsible for doing something else can do that and still take care of their family.
So it goes way, way deep in preparing for it. But I'm also concerned with, we walk around with these cards and we say it's safe, and it breaks. The key question is, is there a liability associated with that?
Jaime Canavis
As far as I know, it's type of the Good Samaritan rule. And also, you are representing a governmental agency. So as far as I know, there's no personal liability. You're doing this as a volunteer, not that that may exempt you in others. But as far as I know, in this program there's no personal liability.
Woman
We just spent two days, actually, training people on exactly this SAP training. We had a whole day of training yesterday, so there are now 17 new people in this region ready to train others. We did a train the trainer course.
The SAP program, it was developed by FEMA and California EMA, and it has one primary function, just to -- actually there are two functions, but it's a safety assessment program. And you're placarding houses, three categories just like you said. Green, that means you can occupy. Yellow means there are some areas you can occupy or not. It's not really safe, but you might be able to retrieve your belongings. And red, you cannot go in at all.
And the point of it is, after a disaster, is to get people back into their houses and business as quickly as possible. Now, the way the programs are done is you're deputized by the jurisdiction that has the disaster, so you are covered because of the Good Samaritan law, right, that's the card. And you go in there with a number, not your name, so there's no liability. But not every state has that Good Sam law. Some states, California, has it established. Rhode Island, we had some representatives from Rhode Island here the last two days talking about the program.
So it's an excellent program, and it's the same program that FEMA has been doing. What we're doing now as volunteers is sort of taking over that role that FEMA has been doing and working side by side with FEMA. The other thing it does when it's a rapid assessment, because there are two kinds of assessments, there's rapid and detailed, it allows a jurisdiction or an area to determine how much damage there's been so they can apply for federal aid if it's enough, if it means that threshold.