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.