Competing against Time: Report of the Governor's Board of Inquiry on the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Abstract

A Board of Inquiry was appointed by the Governor of California to investigate the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. The formation of the Board was prompted by earthquake damage to bridges and freeway structures and the desire to know not only what happened, but how to prevent such destruction in future earthquakes. The Board made fifty-two specific findings and eight recommendations. They identified three essential challenges that must be addressed by the citizens of California, if they expect a future adequately safe from earthquakes: 1) ensure that earthquake risks posed by new construction are acceptable; 2) identify and correct unacceptable seismic safety conditions in existing structures, and; 3) develop and implement actions that foster the rapid, effective, and economic response to and recovery from damaging earthquakes The Loma Prieta earthquake should be considered a clear and powerful warning to the people of California. Although progress has been made during the past two decades in reducing earthquake risks, much more could have been done, and awaits doing. More aggressive efforts to mitigate the consequences of future, certain earthquakes are needed if their disastrous potential is to be minimized and one of the most fundamental of responsibilities of government is to be fulfilled—to provide for the public safety. The Governor signed an Executive Order implementing the principal recommendations of the Board that may prove to be the most significant step to improve seismic safety within the State taken in the last several decades. It establishes the policy that all state owned and operated structures are to be seismically safe and that important structures are to maintain their function after earthquakes.