Glendale (PDF) - Hazard Mitigation Web Portal - State of California

Natural Hazards Mitigation PlanCity of Glendale, CaliforniaSection 6 – EarthquakesResidentia7,478,968Residential 75.9%Commercial 18.6%Industrial 3.6%Others 1.9%Commercia1,827,638Industria357,454Others183,915Regarding critical facilities, the HAZUS database for Glendale includes 70 schools or schoolfacilities, including school district offices, private schools, and community colleges. The City’semergency operations center in the basement of City Hall is also included. The database wasmodified to include the two police stations and nine fire stations that serve the City. Thelocations of these facilities are shown on Plate H-12.HAZUS loss estimations for the City of Glendale based on four of the earthquake scenariosmodeled are presented concurrently below. These scenarios include earthquakes on the SanAndreas, Sierra Madre, Verdugo and Raymond faults. Of the five earthquake scenarios modeledfor the city, the results indicate that the San Andreas fault earthquake will pose the leastdamage to the Glendale, although this fault may have the highest probability of rupturing in thenear-future.The Sierra Madre and Verdugo earthquake scenarios are the worst-case scenarios for the City.The losses are similar, but the damaged areas will be different, as the faults transect differentsections of the City. Since the Sierra Madre fault is a reverse fault, it has the potential togenerate stronger ground accelerations than the predominantly left-lateral strike slip Verdugofault (reverse faults typically generate stronger ground accelerations, distributed over a broadergeographic area than strike-slip faults). However, the stronger seismic shaking will beexperienced north of the fault, in the sparsely populated San Gabriel Mountains. Landslidingand rock collapse can be expected to result in road closures in the mountains, and some damageto the dams north of the area can be anticipated. The areas adjacent to and immediately south ofthe Sierra Madre fault will also experience damage.The losses anticipated as a result of either the Raymond or Hollywood fault causing anearthquake are also similar. These events would pose the next worst-case scenario for Glendale.Directivity of the seismic waves, as discussed earlier in this chapter, will determine, at least tosome extent, where and how much damage will be experienced in the area as a result ofearthquakes on either the Hollywood or Raymond faults. However, seismologists still do not2006 PAGE 6 - 42