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.