Las Vegas among major U.S. cities threatened by earthquakes
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 10:03 a.m.
SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Potential damage
A study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates the potential annual building damage from earthquakes, by state, in dollars. California 3,261,751,000
Washington 227,860,000
Oregon 167,496,000
New York 83,987,000
Nevada 55,041,000
Tennessee 52,117,000
Utah 51,448,000
Alaska 42,353,000
South Carolina 41,812,000
New Jersey 38,655,000
Missouri 38,400,000
Illinois 35,585,000
Hawaii 34,935,000
Massachusetts 24,896,000
Georgia 22,908,000
Pennsylvania 21,906,000
Arizona 20,602,000
North Carolina 18,742,000
Kentucky 18,680,000
New Mexico 17,729,000
Arkansas 16,669,000
Montana 15,609,000
Connecticut 12,189,000
Indiana 11,991,000
Virginia 8,640,000
Alabama 8,422,000
Ohio 8,169,000
Idaho 7,986,000
New Hampshire 6,828,000
Colorado 5,791,000
Mississippi 5,214,000
Maine 5,122,000
Oklahoma 4,681,000
Maryland 3,952,000
Vermont 3,446,000
Wyoming 3,269,000
Rhode Island 2,449,000
West Virginia 2,411,000
Delaware 1,467,000
Florida 922,000
Dist. of Col. 911,000
Texas 722,000
Louisiana 622,000
Michigan 300,000
Kansas 294,000
Wisconsin 121,000
Nebraska 93,000
Iowa 27,000
South Dakota 25,000
Minnesota Under 10,000
North Dakota Under 10,000
WASHINGTON -- While California faces the nation's greatest earthquake risk, a government report says the threat of severe damage from these tremors crosses the nation, including Las Vegas.
New York and Boston in the East and Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis in the middle are among the places at risk for damage and loss caused by quakes.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt said that while the chance of being in an earthquake remained fairly constant over the years, the risk of damage has increased substantially.
"That's because of the increase of urban development in high seismic hazard areas and the vulnerability of older buildings, which were not built to adequate seismic code," he said.
In addition to California metropolitan areas, cities facing the highest potential losses include Seattle; Portland, Ore; New York; Salt Lake City; St. Louis; Tacoma, Wash.; Las Vegas; Anchorage, Alaska; Boston; Reno, Nev.; Memphis, Tenn.; Charleston, S.C.; Albuquerque; Newark, N.J.; Honolulu and Atlanta, according to the report being released Wednesday at the National Earthquake Risk Management Conference in Seattle.
The U.S. Geological Survey ranks Nevada as the third most seismically active state in the nation, behind California and Alaska. FEMA's report, which focused on potential damage to buildings, ranked Nevada fifth.
Recent earthquakes in the state include a 1999 small temblor and a 3.5 magnitude quake in North Las Vegas in 1989. A 5.6 magnitude quake rattled Little Skull Mountain in 1992, less than 12 miles from Yucca Mountain, the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. That quake, an aftershock of Southern California's Landers quake, did an estimated $400,000 worth of damage to Department of Energy structures near Yucca.
Nevada geologists studying the Las Vegas Valley have said a magnitude 6 quake is possible, especially on faults at Sunrise Mountain. The largest quake on record for Southern Nevada was a magnitude 5 in Boulder City before Hoover Dam was built.
Still, the report anticipates that the vast majority of future damage will be in California because of that state's combination of high seismic hazard and high economic exposure. That combination also applies to Seattle and Portland, according to the study.
The FEMA researchers used U.S. Geological Survey data on the earthquake hazard of about 150,000 points across the country and added information about local building inventories, economic data and other details to estimate potential losses.
"Understanding the scope and complexity of potential earthquake damage in a community provides the foundation for planning, zoning, building codes and regulating development in a way to reduce earthquake risk," Witt said.
The FEMA study estimates the nation's annual earthquake property damage losses at about $4.4 billion. That compares to annual flood losses of $5.2 billion between 1989 to 1998, according to National Weather Service data. The study did not seek to estimate deaths and injuries from quakes. Sun reporter
Mary Manning contributed to this story.
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