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Emergency Preparedness FMJ Article
The Northridge Earthquake
The recovery of NILS Publishing Company
Crystal House
At 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake
hit the northwest San Fernando Valley and the epicenter
was five miles from NILS Publishing Company.
At 9 a.m., communication began between myself and the vice
president and CFO. The president of our company had made
the decision to visit the facility to determine the extent
of the damage. This journey, which would have taken 20 minutes
on a normal work day, actually lasted one hour due to road
conditions. At approximately 1 p.m., I received another
call. I was instructed to report to the facility the following
day and to plan on staying for an undetermined length of
time–at least a week. I was able to secure a hotel
reservation in a town 15 miles east of the valley.
My home is located only one hour north of NILS’ facility
in Chatsworth, but all freeways leading to the San Fernando
Valley had collapsed and advisories warned against traveling
on surface streets. On the morning of January 18, I chartered
a flight from an airport north of my home. Flying over the
valley and seeing the devastation from overhead really caused
my adrenaline to flow. I wondered what I was getting myself
into. Setting my feet back on the ground, I became even
more unsettled–literally. The ground beneath me was
still shaking with aftershocks. On the drive to the building,
I saw demolished structures, broken glass everywhere, traffic
signals not working and people who had lost their homes
just sitting in their yards. It looked like a war zone.
Fortunately, our publishing company’s two-story,
tilt-up construction building was still standing, but it
had suffered a great deal of damage. Our office space totals
30,000 square feet and the warehouse area measures 10,000
square feet.
Structural Damage
On the north side of the building, one 24-foot by 30-foot
panel had shattered and bowed out 3 inches. On the east
side of the building, one panel bowed in 1.5 inches. The
shear panel in the lobby took the most damage, shattering
and creating a 4-inch separation in the upper left-hand
corner which supports a concrete girder weighing two tons.
Four air conditioning units had toppled off their platforms.
A 24-foot by 48-foot area of roof over the warehouse suffered
damage and required extensive repair.
Office Area Damage
The entire ceiling system on the second floor of our 30,000-square
foot office space had failed. Walls were detached from one
another including the demising wall between the office area
and the 10,000 square foot warehouse. The 1/4 inch Gypcrete
(light concrete) subfloor on the mezzanine had cracked dead
center for the entire 144-foot length of the southeast wing
of the building and had risen as much as 3 inches in some
areas. The glass canopy of the entry atrium shifted 6 inches
and the Herculite entry doors actually had been lifted out
of their hinges. They were found leaning precariously into
the lobby supported only by the staircase handrail. Open
space plan furnishings appeared to have walked 2 feet from
their original placement, yet miraculously, 17-inch computer
monitors had fallen undamaged into the workstation chairs.
Warehouse damage
Approximately 25 percent of the high-bay shelving had toppled,
bending and twisting beyond any hope of salvage. The 4-inch
electrical conduit and 3-inch telephone service conduit
had detached from the roof structure and landed on top of
the shelving. Stored materials were scattered everywhere,
and two roll-up overhead doors had been knocked off their
tracks.
Power to the building was immediately disconnected due
to the threat of losing the 1,200-amp, 480-volt main transformer.
Meanwhile, the city declared the water supply was contaminated.
Recovery
One month to the day after the earthquake, NILS completed
a $1.2 million renovation, including construction and furnishings.
We were fortunate in having forged a previous working relationship
with a general contractor who arrived at our facility on
January 18 to help assess damage and to offer help. That
same day, workers arrived to begin our facility recovery.
Also that day, calls were placed to locate portable toilets,
a 25-KVA generator, 25-yard roll-off trash containers, additional
forklifts, HVAC service personnel, movers and semi trailers
to replace warehouse space, roofers, security guards, and
a structural engineer.
On the data side, our Digital Engineering service person
arrived and a call was placed to our cabling vendor to inspect
the building which was certified as Level 5 during our renovation.
The state of California has a color-code system to identify
the severity of damage to any structure. A green tag means
unrestricted entry, a yellow tag means entry for purposes
of removing business records and equipment only until structural
repairs are made, and a red tag means no entry for any reason
until structural repairs are made. I’m not sure if
it was due to the activity on-site, but our building was
never inspected by a city official and never tagged. The
two buildings immediately north of us and across the street
to the east were both red-tagged. We considered ourselves
extremely lucky!
NILS leases this facility on a triple net basis, with lease
provisions granting the owner 180 days to determine whether,
in the event of severe damage, repairs will be made to the
structure. We decided it would be in our best interest to
get back in business right away and settle financial matters
with the landlord later. Since NILS is a a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. the president called
corporate headquarters in New York and received emergency
funding for business recovery.
A temporary command center was established in a relatively
unscathed corner of the building on the first floor. Our
PBX system was down due to the loss of power, so we hooked
up non-system phones to business lines for fax machines
and modems. Each day’s activities started at dawn
and ended at sunset–we had no means to provide artificial
lighting and we worked without ventilation. A crew of six
NILS employees tackled the warehouse along with hired movers,
while construction crews began the arduous task of re-electrifying
the facility and repairing structural damage.
One simple rule was in effect: no one was permitted to
move about the facility without a “buddy.” The
aftershock activity was great enough to be considered life-threatening,
so a head count was taken to confirm the whereabouts and
ensure the safety of all workers after each shake-up.
NILS Publishing leases a second facility for our printing
operation a business complex within two blocks of the main
facility. Each building is divided into six one-story units
of 4,000 square feet. Although much of the work in progress
was scattered on the floor, the unit itself was in working
order. Due to delays caused by the complex owners and their
insurers, we hired an engineer to conduct our own structural
inspection. Cosmetic repairs were handled in the same manner
as our main building–we financed and advised the owners
of our decision to settle matters later.
By Friday, January 21, we felt we had accomplished enough
clean-up and repair to ask all managers to report to the
facility for a pep talk and walk-through. The disaster recovery
crew did not work over the weekend. On Friday afternoon
I flew back home, knowing that on Monday I would be returning
to live in a hotel for another week.
On Monday, business resumed on a limited basis. Employees
were asked to report to work at 10 a.m. and were released
at 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, we asked the employees
to work 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The disaster recovery crew worked
at least 12 hours per day during the second week of recovery,
and by Monday, Jan. 31, NILS Publishing Company was operating
at 100 percent capacity.
NILS paid all employees in full during the recovery period.
The corporation provided counseling services, grants to
employees who lost their homes and interest-free loans to
other employees during this crisis.
Building repairs continued for months following this ordeal.
Each major aftershock had caused additional damage to the
facility, but repairs were handled immediately through joint
efforts of the facilities department and the property management
company.
More four years have passed since this event, but we are
still feeling the effects of the interruption in some areas
of our business. We have learned to adjust and continue
to move ahead, looking back upon this event as a learning
experience and an opportunity to rethink our business strategy.
A business recovery team was established in March 1995
to write a recovery plan. Besides myself, our team included
the following co-authors of the plan:
NILS Publisher Alan R. Pfeifer; Director of Data Processing
James Sutherland and Director of Production Debby Von Winckelmann.
The business recovery plan is a living document, and as
such, must be continually updated to reflect even the slightest
changes to the way we do business or who we do business
with.
The business recovery team has specific instructions related
to communications and recovery response. To ensure success
in contacting one another we have provided the following
items to each of the primary recovery team members:
- Nextel PowerFone with vehicle cigarette lighter adapter
- Laptop PC with modem
- Earthquake Pak for vehicle containing three days of
food, water and medical supplies
- Hard hat
- Copies of the business recovery plan to keep in their
vehicles and homes
We are better prepared today than we were in 1994. We have
learned valuable lessons which are incorporated into our
plan to assist us as well as others who may need to enact
the plan in our absence. A recovery plan will be your department’s
most valuable tool when the unexpected happens.
The Northridge, Calif. earthquake of January 1994 caused
$12.5 in insured damage–the most costly earthquake
in recorded history. The world’s most deadly was the
July 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, China which took 250,000
lives.
The first minutes after a devastating earthquake require
quick thinking and clear priorities. First, check for injuries
and administer first aid. Then, check electric and gas lines
for damage. If electrical lines are down, turn off the power.
If you smell gas, open windows and turn off the gas valve,
but don’t turn on lights or appliances that could
spark a fire or explosion. Finally, identify “safe
zones” where people can seek refuge during aftershocks.
Source: Insurance Information
FMJ
About the authors: Crystal
House, CFM is director of facilities management for NILS
Publishing Company in Chatsworth, Calif. Self-taught, she
has 12 years of facility management experience. Her experience
in earthquake recovery has been shared in this best practices
report and through speaking engagements and seminars for
the LA Building Show, the Regina Chapter, and most recently,
NeoCon West. Contact her by e-mail at chouse@nils.com
or 818-998-8830.
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