Herzfeld said her obsession with earthquakes began as a college student, watching Hurricane Katrina on TV. During that disaster, thousands of displaced residents huddled in a sweltering hot sports stadium without enough food, water, or even toilets. In the end, Katrina resulted in the largest dislocation of residents since the Dust Bowl, according to a federal analysis.
"And my geology professor says, while this is happening, 'An earthquake in Seattle will be our Katrina,'" she recalled. "And that's a really bold statement to make. And he says, 'Look at all these brick buildings on campus and around the city. And my immediate reaction to that was, 'Well, why aren't we doing anything about this?' And I've been chasing the answer to that question for decades now."
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The city's team on this project, which Herzfeld now leads, started by making a database of every unreinforced masonry building in the city. Experts walked city streets or dug for evidence in archived construction documents and Google Street View. They finished their assessment in 2023.
They found more than 1,100 unreinforced brick and stone buildings. About half are offices. The other half are apartments.
Being on that list is not a good look. It opens owners up to liability, since they can't claim they didn't know their building was dangerous. And the perception of danger can lower a building's value.