Ida can teach Utah how to prepare for an earthquake | Opinion

Before Ida hit, many people in New Orleans viewed Hurricane Katrina as a defining moment for their city. Some people can tell you how long this has happened, where they have been and what they have experienced.

Given Ida’s relatively few deaths (four across Louisiana and Mississippi, as of press time), lack of crime prevalence and the ability to avoid dangerous gathering places like the SuperDome, Ida may fade from memory, while Katrina remains defining the event. That’s fine, because it means that the city and its surroundings did enough after that tragic storm to prepare, at least in part, for the next one.

But Ida cut a wide range of devastation across much of the Northeast as well, causing more deaths as she bombed New York City and New Jersey. And the repercussions of the storm could be just as dangerous, or more so, than the storm itself.

Nothing replaces proper preparation. If only Utah had learned this lesson.

On March 18, 2020, the Salt Lake District was hit by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake, the epicenter of which was in the Magna Region. This was considered a moderate earthquake, and the damage was minimal. However, great damage was done to Cyprus High School in Magna, and West Lake Junior High School in West Valley City was declared beyond repair.

While no deaths or serious injuries have been reported as a result of the earthquake, this may be due to the pandemic forcing schools to move to online learning.

If Utah had a major earthquake one day and caused widespread damage and many casualties, it would not be for lack of warning. Utah lawmakers, homeowners and landlords need to do more now to prepare. This is especially true when it comes to the need to support unreinforced brick structures.

Earlier this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Utah Seismic Safety Commission issued an unsupported Wasatch Front strategy to reduce construction risks. The executive summary of that report contained stark language.

“The Wasatch Fault represents one of the most catastrophic natural threat scenarios in the United States,” she said, noting that there is a 43% chance that the region will suffer an earthquake of 6.75 or better within the next 50 years,” and experts predict that such an event would be among the The deadliest and most costly disaster in US history.”

How fatal? A 7.0 earthquake along the Wasatch Fault could cause an estimated 2,000 to 2,750 deaths, with up to 10,000 injuries requiring hospital treatment. If the area’s hospitals were healthy enough to function, they would be overwhelmed, even if only some of the injured could find their way through the rubble and broken roads to reach them.

In addition, about 78,000 homes will be made uninhabitable. Complicating matters further, the homes most vulnerable to damage – older homes built with unreinforced bricks – tend to be disproportionately occupied by low-income and disadvantaged people who cannot afford repairs and hospital bills.

The report estimated that there were about 140,000 of these structures along the Wasatch Front.

Although the loss of life from Ida was minimal, the direct consequences provide many lessons. As the Associated Press reports, hundreds of thousands of people in the New Orleans area are without power and may remain so for weeks. Many of them also lack water. Gas stations have no fuel to offer.

Without water, people cannot use toilets, which can lead to sanitation problems and the spread of disease. Without gas, they cannot generate power. Local wildlife – in this case the crocodile and other dangerous animals – enter populated areas in search of food.

Utah must learn from this and prepare, both individually and collectively. State and governor legislators should prioritize additional funding for programs that help homeowners retrofit unsupported homes and buildings.

The huge probably won’t strike during the lifetime of anyone living today, or maybe it will happen tomorrow. If the state is not ready, the cost of post-consequence repair and cleanup will dwarf the cost of prior preparation. The loss of life will be irreparable.

The only thing people associate with them can become homes, rather than their natural beauty and achievements they are so proud of.

New Orleans learned the hard way. Despite the problems it faces today, it appears that its post-Katrina work on levees and other preparations prevented even bigger problems. However, many people are still without electricity and clean water.

We all have to pay attention.

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