The Puget Sound region is the second highest-risk area for a major earthquake in the U.S., but has no statewide interim housing plan, after post-disaster relief fell through in China and New Orleans.
Western’s industrial design students are determined to provide Washington residents with a housing-relief plan in the event of a major earthquake.
Washington’s earthquake risk is second only to California, according to a 2001 study by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said environmental studies research associate Rebekah Green.
The Emergency Management Division of Washington State contacted Western’s environmental studies department, asking students to come up with designs for emergency housing plans. The plans will be presented at the end of the project to those in charge of Washington’s emergency management and to the governor, Green said.
This spring quarter, students at Huxley are designing models for emergency earthquake shelters in the design class Planning for Sustainable Communities and the policy class Practical Applications in Emergency Management.
The two classes worked together to create a plan for interim transitional housing for Bellingham disaster relief, a timely topic while China recovers from its recent earthquake.
“As we can see from the earthquake in China, you don’t want to wait until after the earthquake happens to manage relief,” Green said.
The classes were divided into eight groups, with three or four students in each group. The policy class has three groups working on topics such as emergency food distribution in Whatcom County and agricultural businesses. The design class has five groups, designing a wide variety of possible housing structures, she said.
Disaster relief policies are essential to put plans and aid in place before disaster strikes, Green said.
The classes involve urban planning, physical architectural design and policy-making. This is the fourth year the class has been offered and each year the project is different, Western senior Adam Weisgerber said.
Groups must consider location in case highways fail, financing and finding the most cost-effective solution in the event of a disaster, how they can be built in a sustainable fashion and how the structures are best suitable for standing up in aftershocks, Weisgerber said.
Western senior Jessica Hardy said the teams came up with separate designs for different locations in Bellingham; some groups planned their shelter in parks, parking lots and front yards.
The structures vary in design, from yurts to bomb shelters made from concrete and straw, she said.
Hardy is working with Western senior Deldre Hunsaker and junior Jon Takao to design a two-story shelter made of particle board and wood which could be installed in the backyard of an average middle-class Bellingham family.
Hunsaker said the advantage to their design was it could be constructed in one day and made from local materials you would find at Home Depot. She said the structure could be assembled anywhere for about $12,000 and a family could feasibly live in the home for up to two years.
In comparison, Hunsaker said the FEMA interim housing is approximately $20,000.
“We wanted to create a space where families could be close to their home and community in the midst of a disaster,” Hunsaker said.
Takao said some of the problems FEMA has encountered with their current interim-housing trailers are that residents don’t feel comfortable living in them. He said the trailers also have formaldehyde and mold problems.
“With FEMA’s current housing, people go from living in a home before a natural disaster to living in a box,” Hunsaker said. “Our design feels more like a home.”
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