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City of Berkeley offers retrofit grants for soft story buildings

City of Berkeley have obtained FEMA funding that can be applied towards the engineering fees of up to $5,000 and 30% of construction costs up to the total combined design and construction costs of $25,000.  The funds are available in the form of reimbursements. In order to be eligible for the engineering costs reimbursement, the […]

California to Develop Earthquake Early Warning System

Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill expediting the research and development of a statewide earthquake early warning system that has potential to save lives. The warning system is designed to detect the first shock waves from an earthquake, and alert people before the slower but devastating waves spread. Once the system is ready, Californians will […]

There Are Still 60% Of Soft Story Buildings In San Francisco That Have Not Complied With SF Earthquake Safety Standard!

In an interview done by KPIX 5, the Director of the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, Tom Hui, said that only 40 percent of soft story buildings in San Francisco are in compliance with seismic retrofit ordinance.  A map that shows status of soft story building in San Francisco can be found on San […]

Additional steps you can take to secure you home

Additional steps you can take to secure you home.  Have you noticed a continuous stream of news about earthquakes from around the world lately?  I certainly have and it reminds me that we are overdue for one.  There are a number common sense things that don’t cost a lot of of money  that one can […]

A Residential Seismic Retrofits Grants May Soon Be Available for Eligible Oakland Property Owners!

The City of Oakland has requested a federal funding for two programs that provides grant for Oakland property owners that are interested in seismic retrofitting their property. If the City of Oakland receives the funds, property owners will be contacted to complete a full application. The criteria to participate in the programs are as follow: […]

ATTENTION: Owners of “Tier 2” Soft Story properties in San Francisco!

San Francisco “Tier 2” property owners, the September 15th deadline of the mandated seismic retrofit program is approaching! Owners of Tier 2 properties, with 3-stories and 15 or more residential units need to submit permit application by deadline. Failure to submit permits and plans to Department of Building Inspection will result in code enforcement action […]

Los Angeles Passed a Seismic Retrofit Ordinance!

The city of Los Angeles Passed Ordinance NO. 183893, a seismic retrofit Ordinance which will affect as much as 17,000 buildings in the city. The goal of this Ordinance is to improve tenant safety, lower likelihood of building collapse, and to reduce earthquake damage. This Ordinance will be costly and the city has decided that […]

Check out the recent earthquakes and faults near you and estimate the damage from the potential earthquake to your home

Earthquake damage probability as compared to other risks

Berkeley Apartment Building Owners Halfway There

According to the Contra Costa Times (“Berkeley: More than half the soft story buildings retrofitted, city says,” posted on 10/6/15), more than half of the apartment buildings identified as needing to be seismically retrofitted have completed the process since the soft story ordinance passed in 2005.  According to the article 145 soft story apartment buildings […]

EQ IQ (Continued)

Additional steps you can take to secure you home.  These steps are paraphrasing and adding to another New Yorker article by Kathryn Shultz “How to Stay Safe When the Big One Comes” as it relates to SF Bay Area.  See the previous post that talks about earthquake facts and crawl space strengthening and foundation bolting […]