CREW and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management co-hosted the 2023 National Earthquake Program Managers Meeting (NEPM) in Portland in March. This annual event is an opportunity for all state and federal earthquake program managers, their colleagues, supporting organizations, and consortia partners to confer, share concepts and plans, build professional relationships, and learn about new tools, resources, and programs.
The 2023 NEPM meeting kicked off with a special session on building inventories, a critical first step toward seismic mitigation of potentially dangerous structures. The session featured case studies and discussion about best practices as well as challenges of collecting data.
In addition to presentations and discussion sessions within the conference setting, the meeting included a field trip with guest speakers to explore seismic resilience issues within the context of specific settings in the city of Portland, including mitigation of geological hazards at an underground Tri-Met Max station and recently built structures at the Oregon Zoo, as well as discussion of seismic construction and retrofitting of important community buildings including libraries, which can play an important role in both community preparedness and recovery after a disaster.
