Engineers plan ahead, respond to disaster situations: engineers respond to a disaster by taking action to prevent further loss and injuries. Their work in recovery helps restore facilities and bring the community back to normal economic health.

• Author: Pounds, Nancy

While police and firefighters work to save lives during a major disaster, various engineers also employ their skills during rescue and recovery efforts.

"Engineers do a lot of work beforehand and after a disaster," said Howard Holtan, municipal engineer for the City of Anchorage's Office of Planning, Development and Public Works.

Their talents come into play designing structurally sound and earthquake-resistant buildings, assessing damage after a flood or earthquake and revising building codes and rebuilding after a catastrophe.

In Anchorage, potential disasters include earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and severe weather-like wind, cold and heavy snow, Holtan said. The worst possible event would be terrorist activity, said Vince McCoy, emergency management coordinator for the Municipality of Anchorage's Office of Emergency Management.

He leads operations at the city's Emergency Operations Center, a sturdy former telephone company switch office. A multimillion-dollar retrofit updated the building, which now is one of the only sites with police and fire department switchboards side by side, McCoy said.

PLANNING AHEAD

Essential work by engineers starts long before any possible emergencies by monitoring soil and designing buildings to current standards, McCoy said.

"Pre-disaster mitigation will save big money," Holtan said. Design and planning will allow a building to function after a disaster.

Also, more than 1,000 engineers statewide--geotechnical, structural, mechanical and building engineers--have been trained through a program to assess building damage after an earthquake or flood, McCoy said. The assessment rates whether a building can be occupied or not.

The program was developed by the California engineers association, the state's emergency services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the Loma Prieta 1989 California earthquake, he said. Its standards for investigating a building's structural integrity have been used at the Northridge, Calif., earthquake, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and various floods nationwide, he said.

"Has it saved lives? I think it has," McCoy said.

The Alaska training started 10 years ago, and was most recently used after the Denali fault earthquake in 2002. Sixteen people evaluated buildings in the affected area and offered suggestions for future safety, McCoy said.

The engineers are trained to look beyond a building's exterior appearance and assess the electrical, heating...