They Knew All Along...? - LA TIMES today

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: They Knew All Along...?
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 10:19:59 EDT
From: PLANETNEWS@aol.com
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

They knew about this prior to the fact!
Who else has knowledge of future events?

This was in the LA TIMES today, in a small column on the lower left of the
front page....what is strange is that FEMA had these scientists meeting on
August 2001, and their topics were the disaster situations as
described...all three in a row...."terrorists attacking New York....a
hurricane disaster in "New Orleans"...and NOW an earthquake along San
Andreas fault?

Were the topics of this meeting August 2001 a coincidence?....OR...how could
this meeting have gone down with these three disasters as topics without the
media picking up on FEMAS's spelling out what was to come? OR worst yet...if
they knew this all along...why did they NOT prepare everyone for these 'so
called most likely disaster?"

Is FEMA full of psychics? I mean why would these three events that had not
occurred yet...be the subject?

As you read this article...if you can get your hands on today's LA
TIMES....grab one!

This is absolutely a very scary write up where FEMA had already known about
three MAJOR disasters that had NOT occured yet! AND I live in Southern
California...and they mentioned a MAJOR QUAKE!

MAN...what am I to think about this?

Two events have already come to pass...BUT what's worse...is that in August
2001 they had predicted a hurricane disaster in "NEW ORLEANS!" I mean...what
the FREAK! How could they have predicted this? Hurricanes are so
sporadic...they nailed down "NEW ORLEANS!" during this meeting in 2001!

This write up is so lightly penned as if we "the public" should accept these
facts "before the fact" as a common news item! I mean it is written as
if...okay...so these two events happened and FEMA was right on...so now what
to do??? We must prepare for MAJOR disaster #3! A MAJOR QUAKE in California!

NOT ONE attending scientist or official from FEMA even mentioned this
meeting that took place back in 2001 to the press after 9/11 nor especially
after the hurricane! Are we ASLEEP?

According to this report they "knew about" these disasters "most likely" to
occur...so if this agency knew...why were we NOT warned to prepare for these
events AND most secifically who else "up the ladder" knew about this?

Everyone take heed...get an LA TIMES 9/8/05 newspaper...read it for
yourself! Or go to the web site:

http://www.latimes.com

If it's taken off...here is a re-print below. I among millions in LA have a
copy of todays' LA TIMES...and this article IS THERE! Kind of FREAKY DEEKY!
To say the least!

Here is the write up:

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The Los Angeles Times - latimes.com
KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
California Earthquake Could Be the Next Katrina
By Jia-Rui Chong and Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writers

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones remembers attending an
emergency training session in August 2001 with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency that discussed the three most likely catastrophes to
strike the United States.

First on the list was a terrorist attack in New York. Second was a
super-strength hurricane hitting New Orleans. Third was a major earthquake
on the San Andreas fault.

Now that the first two have come to pass, she and other earthquake experts
are using the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity
to reassess how California would handle a major temblor.

Jones, scientist-in-charge for the geological survey's Southern California
Earthquake Hazards Team, and other experts generally agree that California
has come a long way in the last two decades in seismic safety.

In Los Angeles, all but one of 8,700 unreinforced masonry buildings
considered the most likely to collapse in a major quake have been
retrofitted or demolished. The state spent billions after the 1994
Northridge quake to retrofit more than 2,100 freeway overpasses, reporting
this week that only a handful remain unreinforced.

Despite these improvements, however, officials believe that a major temblor
could cause the level of destruction and disruption seen over the last week
on the Gulf Coast.

More than 900 hospital buildings that state officials have identified as
needing either retrofitting or total replacement have yet to receive them,
and the state recently agreed to five-year extensions to hospitals that
can't meet the 2008 deadline to make the fixes. More than 7,000 school
buildings across the state would also be vulnerable during a huge temblor, a
state study found, though there is no firm timetable for upgrading the
structures.

And four Los Angeles Police Department facilities including the Parker
Center headquarters in downtown worry officials, because they were built
to primitive earthquake standards and might not survive a major temblor.
Only two of the LAPD's 19 stations meet the most rigorous quake-safe rules.

"We could be dealing with infrastructure issues a lot like New Orleans,"
Jones said. "Our natural gas passes through the Cajon Pass〓. Water three
pipelines cross the San Andreas fault in an area that is expected to go in
an earthquake." Railway lines are also vulnerable, she said.

A catastrophic temblor at the right spot along the San Andreas could
significantly reduce energy and water supplies at least temporarily, she
and others said. Researchers at the Southern California Earthquake Center
said there is an 80% to 90% chance that a temblor of 7.0 or greater
magnitude will strike Southern California before 2024.

"We aren't anywhere close to where I wish we were" in terms of seismic
safety, Jones said.

Seismologists are particularly concerned about a type of vulnerable building
that has received far less attention than unreinforced masonry.

There are about 40,000 structures in California made from "non-ductile
reinforced concrete," a rigid substance susceptible to cracking. This was a
common construction ingredient for office buildings in the 1950s and '60s,
before the state instituted stricter standards. Few such structures have
been seismically retrofitted, officials said.

Seismic safety advocates have also recently lost some major battles in
Sacramento. The state rejected a proposal from the Seismic Safety Commission
in the wake of the 2003 San Simeon earthquake to force owners of
unreinforced masonry buildings to post warning signs. In that quake, two
women died when the roof slid off of a two-story Paso Robles brick building
where they worked.

Last week, the Legislature sent to the governor's desk a bill that
encourages local governments to develop retrofitting programs for "soft
story" wood-frame apartment buildings.

There are an estimated 70,000 such structures in the state, and experts
worry that they could sustain major quake damage, because they often have
tuck-under parking and lack solid walls at their bases.

The danger of this kind of construction was illustrated in the 1994 collapse
of the Northridge Meadows apartment complex, in which 16 residents were
killed.

There are other potential safety gaps as well.

Although Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena and several other cities have
reinforced almost all their masonry buildings, about a third of such
structures across the state remain unprotected, said Frank Turner, an
engineer with the Seismic Safety Commission.

A state study published last year on hazard reduction paints a sobering
picture of California's earthquake danger. About 62% of the population lives
in a zone of high earthquake danger, including 100% of the population of
Ventura County, 99% of Los Angeles County and 92% of Riverside County.

Since 1971, there have been at least 13 earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or
greater in the state, and research conducted after the 1989 Loma Prieta
quake in the Bay Area found a 62% probability that at least one earthquake
of magnitude 6.7 or more would strike the Bay Area before 2032.

"We're pretty confident we have some of the best buildings in the world
here, but 〓 there are always going to be losses, because these are
extraordinary events," Turner said.

Still, Southern California's geography could help prevent a catastrophe on
the scale of that in New Orleans.

Because the Los Angeles region is so much larger than the Louisiana city, it
is difficult to conceive of a disaster "short of an A-bomb" that would
blanket the whole city, let alone the whole county, in ruin, said Lee
Sapaden, a spokesman for Los Angeles County's Office of Emergency
Management.

Earthquakes tend to do the most damage closest to the epicenters. The 1994
Northridge quake, for example, damaged a large swath of the San Fernando
Valley as well as parts of Hollywood and the Westside. But areas farther to
the east and south, such as Long Beach and Orange County, saw little damage.

A large quake in the Valley would probably still allow emergency supplies
and rescuers to reach the area from other locations such as the San Gabriel
Valley and South Bay, Sapaden said.

Emergency crews would have better mobility than those in New Orleans, he
added, because even if freeways were wrecked, aid would probably be able to
get through the vast majority of areas on surface streets. "Here in Southern
California, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Santa Barbara counties
would help us out, just like we would help them," he said.

One of the biggest concerns of seismic safety officials is the fate of
hospitals.

The 1971 Sylmar earthquake pushed Olive View Medical Center a foot off its
foundation, causing the first floor to collapse, killing three patients and
a hospital worker. The 1994 Northridge quake knocked 23 hospitals
temporarily out of service.

After that quake, the Legislature passed a law requiring that hospitals
retrofit buildings to withstand a major temblor or replace them with new
ones. About 78% of hospitals have at least one building deemed at risk, said
Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Assn.

But hospitals, many of which are fighting budget problems, have balked at
the price tag estimated at $24 billion for 2002-2030 and in many cases
have successfully pushed Sacramento to delay the retrofitting deadline. The
state has already granted about 200 requests for extensions to make the
necessary repairs by 2013, according to a state document.

Safety officials said more work is also needed at schools.

A 2002 state study found that more than 7,500 school buildings across
California are expected to "perform poorly" in a major temblor.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has completed seismic upgrades to
nearly 2,000 buildings, spending $222 million on the effort, according to
Richard Luke, director of design for the district.

But the district has not finished upgrades on 600 portable buildings and
will look at an additional 239 buildings identified by the Division of State
Architect as possibly performing poorly during a major quake.

Jones of the geological survey and Turner of the Seismic Safety Commission
believe that one worst-case scenario would involve a massive temblor on the
San Andreas fault around where major utility lines run, possibly
compromising water and power supplies.

"We should not be at all surprised if something similar to Hurricane Katrina
mirrors itself in California," Turner said. "There have been lots of
articles written about the failure of levees in the [Sacramento-San Joaquin]
Delta, the loss of drinking water in California. This is just the tip of the
iceberg."

About 60% of Southern California's water is imported from outside the region
in three major aqueducts that cross the San Andreas fault, making them
particularly vulnerable to major earthquake damage.

One branch of the 444-mile California Aqueduct, which carries water from the
delta, virtually sits on top of the fault for a few miles near Palmdale. A
second aqueduct from the Colorado River crosses the fault near Beaumont. And
the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which transports snowmelt from the eastern Sierra,
runs across the San Andreas in a mountain tunnel between Lancaster and Santa
Clarita.

Southern California water managers say they've made progress in recent years
building local reserves they could turn to if they lost water from one or
more of the transport systems.

With such efforts, "we feel even more confident we are able to provide
sufficient water to sustain us during an earthquake," said Debra Man, chief
operating officer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
the region's main water wholesaler.

Jim McDaniels, chief operating officer for the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power's water system, said that if disaster struck, the DWP could
double its groundwater pumping within the basin and draw from its four big
local reservoirs.

Major gas lines also come into Southern California over the San Andreas at
several points, including at Indio, Palmdale, the Cajon Pass and the Tejon
Ranch. Still, officials at the Southern California Gas Co. expressed
confidence that the system could withstand a strong earthquake, noting they
have been upgrading the pipeline for years.

Another open question is whether the major quake would cause damage to fire
stations, police headquarters and facilities of other emergency agencies,
possibly slowing their response. A state study found that many of the 1,300
emergency operations buildings were constructed before strict quake building
standards were enacted in 1986, and that only a portion of those had been
retrofitted.

At the LAPD, the only four facilities to meet the most recent and rigorous
"essential building" standards are the department's newest: the West Valley
and Mission police stations and two 911 dispatch centers.

Yvette Sanchez-Owens, head of the department's facilities management office,
said she is most concerned about three stations built in the 1960s: Rampart,
Hollenbeck and Harbor. Police officers at the Harbor station in San Pedro
have been relocated to trailers while a new station is built; officers could
be moved out of the Hollenbeck station in Boyle Heights sometime this fall
as preparation for construction of a new station begins.

As for Parker Center, it already sustained significant damage during the
Northridge earthquake. It is also scheduled to be replaced, but not for
several years.

"It could be in real trouble," Sanchez-Owens said. "It's definitely not
built up to standard."

Times staff writer Bettina Boxall contributed to this report.

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