Napa earthquake business survivors have been asked to help the nation become more disaster resilient by completing a survey on the economic impact of the magnitude 6.0 South Napa Earthquake of August 2014. In partnership with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), the Association of Bay Area Governments' (ABAG) Chief Economist, Cynthia Kroll and researchers from four other organizations are developing this Napa pilot survey to serve as a model for gauging business conditions after a natural disaster.
"For the Napa experience, the pilot survey gives us illustrations of how the quake affected businesses and what contributed to business resilience. In the longer term, we hope to determine how to best gather information on the impacts of a natural disaster on local businesses. This type of research provides information for businesses and public agencies on how to prepare and what's needed to help a business recover," Kroll said.
Results will be shared with government decision makers, business groups, emergency managers and planners, researchers, risk mitigation experts, and interested members of the general public. The survey is conducted by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) in collaboration with local economic development and business organizations as part of EERI's Resilience Observatory Project and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. EERI has extended the survey for 4 more weeks. Napa businesses can still respond to the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/napa-case-study.
The goal is to gather enough survey results bymid-October to inform the development of a survey instrument that can track effects of a major event from the initial incident through recovery.
Efforts like the Napa Pilot Survey are in keeping with the missions of ABAG's Research Program, which provides data and analysis on demographic and economic trends in the region, and the ABAG Resilience Program, which supports recovery and mitigation research, planning and action for a resilient Bay Area and assists Bay Area local governments and residents in planning for earthquakes, the effects of climate change, and other hazards.
More information on the survey and the EERI Resilience Observatory Project is available here.
For more information, visit the ABAG Resilience program website at http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/about/.