seismic building codes

May is National Building Safety Month

Campaign graphic: Building Safety Month 2023: "It Starts with YOU!" #BuildingSafety365

Building codes are critical to ensuring that all of a community’s buildings are constructed to withstand natural hazards. In the earthquake-prone areas of the western United States, buildings should at least meet current life-safety seismic codes in order to keep people safe from structural collapse when a damaging earthquake strikes.

Be sure to join the International Code Council and other partners throughout earthquake country this month to get the word out and raise awareness about the importance of building code adoption — including regular updating and code enforcement!

Learn more about Building Safety Month

Learn more about seismic building codes

See the Proclamation on National Building Safety Month, 2023

A New FEMA Publication Focuses on Seismic Building Codes

This spring, FEMA released A Step Forward: Recommendations for Improving Seismic Code Development, Content, and Education (P-2191). The project task group that produced it was charged with studying ways to improve the seismic code development process in order to better serve the engineering community. The group focused on three topic areas: improving the standard and code development process, making the standards and codes easier to use, and improved communication with the engineering community and the public.

This publication can be downloaded from FEMA’s website.

Visit FEMA’s Building Science Resource Library to find more hazard-specific guidance publications.