Wednesday, September 23, 2020
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Pacific
Registration Fee: Free
1,000 registrations (sites) maximum

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Purpose. Drawing on the recently published FEMA P-2055, Post-disaster Building Safety Evaluation Guidance Report on the Current State of Practice, including Recommendations Related to Structural and Nonstructural Safety and Habitability, this webinar will provide an overview of existing procedures for post-disaster building safety evaluations and issues related to structural safety and habitability. Guidance will also be presented on planning, managing, and implementing safety evaluation programs before and after a disaster incident.

Background: In late 2018, Congress directed FEMA to develop and publish guidance, including best practices, for the post-disaster safety assessment of buildings by licensed architects and engineers to ensure that design professionals properly analyze the structural integrity and livability of buildings and structures following disasters (Disaster Recovery Reform Act, Section 1241(a)). The final report, FEMA P-2055, covers current state of practice, including recommendations related to structural safety and habitability. This report is a first-of-its-kind document that serves as a comprehensive review of all facets of post-disaster safety evaluations, covering deployment management, secondary hazard events, requirements for health of occupants, and discussions on interim post-disaster use of buildings.

Intended Audience. The primary intended audience is architects, engineers, and building officials directly involved in post-disaster building safety evaluation. The webinar will also be useful to policy makers at all levels of government, emergency managers, and health officials who may be involved in management of the post-disaster evaluation process.

Instructor, Bret Lizundia. Lizundia is a structural engineer and principal at Rutherford + Chekene in San Francisco. He has over 30 years of experience in structural design of new buildings, seismic evaluation and rehabilitation of existing buildings, peer review and plan checking, and applied research and guideline development. He was the Project Technical Director of FEMA P-2055 and the adaptation of ATC-20 to the country of Bhutan, and co-author of ATC-109 that summarizes observations of building safety evaluations after the 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake. He has also served as project manager and coauthor of FEMA 547, Techniques for Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings, coauthor of FEMA 306/307, Evaluation of Earthquake Damaged Concrete and Masonry Wall Buildings, Project Technical Director for the update to FEMA P-154, Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards, and Project Technical Director for FEMA P-2006, Example Application Guide for ASCE/SEI 41-13 Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings. He is a past president of the Applied Technology Council and the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.