People can't prevent
natural disasters from happening. But, Salt Lake City's residents and
government officials aren't throwing up their hands in defeat or ignoring
the risks. This city has joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency's
(FEMA) Project Impact: Building Disaster Resistant Communities. The
goal of this nationwide initiative is to prevent disaster damage, and
Salt Lake City joined cities in the San Francisco Bay area, the Pacific
Northwest, and along the New Madrid Fault in the Midwest in heeding
FEMA's message about earthquake preparedness.
Project Impact: Celebrating Partnerships
From December 12 to 16, 1999, more than 1,200 public officials (Federal, state, and local), emergency management experts, educators, representatives of the media and non-profit organizations, private citizens, and FEMA's corporate partners came together in Washington, DC for the second annual Project Impact Summit. These national partners for community preparedness celebrated Project Impact's achievements during its second year. But, more important, they shared new ideas for changing the way America deals with disasters and for breaking the disaster-rebuild-disaster cycle.
Project Impact began with seven pilot communities in 1997. Today, it has grown to more than 200 designated communities with more than 1,100 business partners.
Project Impact's partners
are helping their communities become disaster resistant by providing funding,
in-kind services, technical support, and labor to assist in disaster-prevention
efforts. Together, they are assessing their vulnerabilities to natural
disasters of all kinds, enforcing stricter building codes, strengthening
existing buildings and infrastructures, offering incentives for taking
preventive steps, and educating citizens on prevention measures they need
to take in their homes and businesses. These active public-private partnerships
are the heart of Project Impact, pulling community resources together
so that all can benefit from the collaboration. And, two years of evidence
has shown that for every dollar spent on damage prevention, at least two
dollars can be saved in disaster recovery costs.
Taking Unprecedented Actions
In Salt Lake City, fire stations already have been retrofitted according to FEMA specifications, and a recently approved bond measure will fund upgrades in all 38 Salt Lake City schools. The estimated total cost of completing the upgrades, along with constructing two new elementary school buildings, is about $270 million. The investment will bring the city's school up to standards with the Uniform Building Code Seismic Level 4, the most stringent standards, and will make Salt Lake City's schools among the safest in the nation against seismic (earthquake) risks.
