Four Marin cities singled out for quake preparedness
By Mark Prado

SAN FRANCISCO - While all Marin's cities and towns meet basic state requirements for mapping buildings that may be most susceptible to damage in a large earthquake, others have won praise for more exhaustive surveys.

Such mapping helps emergency crews know where to go first if a massive temblor hits the area, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Earthquake Engineering Institute, which yesterday released a survey of cities' earthquake preparedness.

Three Marin cities - Belvedere, Corte Madera and Fairfax - did not respond to the survey, according to ABAG.

The state requires that all cities have an inventory of privately owned, unreinforced masonry buildings. All Marin cities have met those requirements.

But several Marin cities have gone further, creating listings for other potentially vulnerable buildings, according to the survey.

"When the earthquake happens, they can tell their emergency response crews to go check out these areas, they are very vulnerable," said Victoria Costello of the engineering institute.

Larkspur, Mill Valley, Novato and Tiburon have all conducted inventories of their more brittle concrete buildings, according to the survey. The same cities also have a list of apartments that are built over parking garages and buildings that sit on hillsides.

Larkspur and Novato have also listed buildings that had their walls prefabricated on the ground and then lifted into place, which are vulnerable to damage.

Larkspur, Mill Valley, Novato and Tiburon also conducted inventories of residential buildings that have had retrofit work.

San Rafael won praise for offering financial seismic safety incentives to residents.

Problem buildings vary in different regions of the Bay Area, said Jeanne Perkins, ABAG's earthquake program manager.

"In the East Bay there are a number of (apartments over parking garages), but there aren't nearly as many of those buildings in Marin and the rest of the North Bay," she said. "On the other hand, there are a number of hillside homes in the North Bay and in Marin County."

Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Yesterday's press conference was an attempt to draw attention to an inevitable temblor. There could be as many as 4,000 deaths and billions of dollars in damage in a major quake, officials said.

Over the next four years the engineering group and ABAG will issue twice-yearly reviews - on the April anniversary of the 1906 quake and the anniversary of Loma Prieta - in an effort to improve earthquake preparedness.

There is a 70 percent chance that one or more 6.7 or greater magnitude earthquakes will strike the Bay Area within the next 30 years, according to the U.S Geological Survey.

The Hayward fault, which hasn't seen a major quake since 1868, is the most likely to move, scientists have said. A quake along the entire Hayward fault, which runs through the East Bay, would leave about 5,300 people in Marin homeless by knocking out 2,125 housing units.

A 7.1 magnitude quake would close 28 roads in Marin, and render the Golden Gate and Richmond-San Rafael bridges unusable, according to ABAG. Retrofits of those two spans are ongoing.

"There are a lot of good things going on, but there is also a significant message: there is not enough happening," said Charles Scawthorn, vice president of the engineering institutes chapter. "We need to be ready."