IDENTIFYING AND MANAGING CONJOINT THREATS - EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RELEASES IN THE US

Hazardous materials (hazmat), in many forms, are ubiquitous in modem s ociety, Not only are they present in manufacturing and commercial esta blishments, but also in homes, medical facilities, laboratories and sc hools. Further, hazmat is transported by truck and rail and pipeline a nd stored in large tanks. Indeed, these materials are both integrated into communities in fixed facilities and circulate through neighborhoo ds in the transportation process. In areas that are vulnerable to eart hquakes, the presence of hazmat poses special problems, This article e xamines the nature of earthquake-induced hazmat releases, their likeli hood and their impact on emergency response systems, It is argued that hazmat incidents become an additional disaster agent that must be int egrated into the management framework for earthquakes, Under specified conditions, an earthquake could initiate releases from many sources s imultaneously, severely taxing the emergency management system, Furthe r, earthquake-related obstacles to emergency response severely hamper the management of hazmat releases. These obstacles include loss of com munication capacity,overload of the emergency medical system, loss of warning systems for the public, and impediments to incident access cau sed by road buckling, fires, rubble, structural collapse and flooding from damaged water mains, A case review of the hazmat problems that ar ose during the Northridge earthquake is reported to identify challenge s posed for emergency managers. The article closes with a series of re commendations for mitigation, preparedness and emergency response.