AMENDMENT WOULD HELP GOVERNMENT, SHCOOLS FUND QUAKE WORK

Cities, counties and school districts would be given the authority to expand their bonded indebtedness to retrofit public buildings against earthquakes if Amendment 5 is approved at the Aug. 4 primary election.

The Missouri General Assembly approved a resolution sending the amendment to voters as a way of helping governmental entities make buildings withstand earthquakes. In particular, there is a serious problem with school buildings in the state.

"The whole intent of this is to help communities get their public buildings up to seismic standards," said Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, who handled the resolution in the House. "One of the things we run into is communities don't have the funds to build new buildings, but the people who work in some of these buildings or come in there are at risk.

"We live on a very active fault and we need to do what we can to address the potential problems."

Thomason said R.D. Ross, director of the state's Emergency Management Agency, first proposed the amendment to legislators.

"The major issue we have is that we have 200 years of buildings, very few of which, whether public or private, have been built to seismic standards," said Ross. "Only a very few school buildings and hospitals anywhere in the New Madrid Fault area have been built to seismic specifications."

Two years ago a new state law was passed requiring 47 counties in earthquake-prone areas of the state and the city of St. Louis to comply with recognized national building codes for seismic standards in public buildings. But Ross and Thomason said that the law only deals with new construction or major renovations, and not existing buildings.

All federal buildings are in the process of being retrofitted to seismic standards as the result of a presidential executive order, said Ross.

If Amendment 5 passes, cities, counties and school districts would be allowed, with voter approval, to increase their limit of bonded indebtedness by 5 percent to retrofit buildings to seismic standards.

"This is a reasonable, prudent direction," said Ross.

Thomason said the additional bonding capacity could not be used for anything besides seismic retrofitting.

Thomason said his biggest fear about a major earthquake in Southeast Missouri is school buildings. A survey conducted last year by a Senate committee chaired by Sen. John Dennis, D-Benton, found that most school buildings along the New Madrid Fault were not seismically sound.

"The vast majority of our school buildings are not up to seismic codes, and that could lead to a real tragedy," said Thomason.

He said the Armenian earthquake that occurred five years ago killed 25,000 people, about half of them children who were in school when the quake occurred. "It would be a terrible thing to have that happen here," said Thomason.

The representative said he believes many school districts would consider taking advantage of the constitutional change to retrofit school buildings.

"I see some of them using it," said Thomason. "I think it will be a real good tool for them."

Ross said: "I guess our greatest concern has been one, schools; two, hospitals; and three, senior-citizen facilities. All of us in this business and citizens, as we have grown more aware of the earthquake issue, are struck by the potential of what could happen at those three kinds of facilities."

If it passes, Ross said he believes there will be a gradual move toward retrofitting existing buildings.

He said many school systems have already been doing some nonstructural mitigation such as attaching shelving and other objects that could fall during a quake, removing hazardous chemicals, and securing back-up power systems.

Eventually, most public buildings will meet seismic standards as new facilities are built, said Ross. In the meantime, he said, tools like Amendment 5 will help speed up the preparation.

"I think what we've seen recently is a maturity on this issue," said Ross. "There is nothing so exotic about this issue or any of the hundreds of other hazards we face; it's just that this one, we've hidden away in a back room all these years."