once it is seismically upgraded, it is safe, right?> when you seismically upgrade it, it is to a standard it doesn't collapse, but it may not be reusable or repairable. >> it was an economic decision of how much money the city could afford versus the benefits to retrofit the buildings. >> we have done about 90% of the upgrade. the standard is low enough that in a major upgrade most will have to be replaced and we lose these beautiful buildings. many of the details are not what they appear to be. these are sheet metal details and trims. sheet metal cornices. san francisco was famous for the sheet metal work. when you go into the sheet metal shop, the whole front of the building is made of sheet metal. that is pacific? no, powell. >> i trick on how you can date old brick buildings, after the '06 earthquake they made windows with steel plates. before that earthquake if you see an arch, it is a pre '06. it is an easy way to date the buildings. >> you can see the great depth. that indicates these are exceptionally thick walls which indicate

second, seismic and flood protection walk down, including any plant and vulnerability. third come issue of events rulemaking to address prolonged loss of air-conditioned power. fourth, review our fire and flooding protection equipment to ensure they can withstand a seismic event or flooding. we also have additional of whitman in the event of a multi- unit equipment. fifth, review the bentinck capability and our marquand and market of your reactors. six, maintain and train on severe accident guidelines. there are things that could be done right away. >> what was the sixth one? >> we have severe accident guidelines that help us deal with catastrophic events. making sure those are good order and making sure people are trained is a high priority. >> we will just go down the line. mr. chairman, react to the ostendorff half-dozen. >> certainly no disagreement. beyond that, there are really not that many recommendations that the task force recommended for near-term actions. so i think some of this discussion is really about semantics. four of the 12 recommendations themselves

. >> relooking @ flooding and seismic requirements to make sure we are using state-of-the- art technology there is one. >> so the recommendation that every 10 years operators would have to come up with new assessments as to the safety. that is the recommendation. >> i was referring to the recommendation that cast staff to look at our rate basis on seismic -- >> how about the one i just read? every 10 years, the operator of a plant located near flooding and seismic has to we look at the problems. with signs moving forward, commissioner, we have new information all the time as to whether the seismic problems are worse, less. right now, we are concerned. science shows us that this is moving in the wrong direction. morse tsunamis, more earthquakes. -- more tsunami is, more earthquakes. do you think this recommendation is complex? >> as an agency, we constantly look at our state of knowledge in those areas. >> do you think it is complex to ask the operator, who is operating a plant, on or near an earthquake fault, or near a possible tsunami zone, to ask them every 10 years to reassess the safe

its seismic upgrades. extremelif you know me, one of my passions is to be sure we are ready for the next earthquake. for folks who could not move elsewhere, to feel safe in the building they were a part of, helped to contribute to making seismically safe, and our earnings and ability to have earthquake insurance cover them, we have a fantastic story to tell here. in addition, it has added 105 units to the whole 10-year end homeless program that we committed to. this helps to achieve 1800 units of those 3000 that we committed to building. i am sure the people that helped us write the program would be proud. these units are not just high places for people. it is also a service. services from our department of public health and from the human services agency. a collaboration that this building represents. we have a lot to celebrate because not only is it a complex thing to do, in a needy community, but it accomplishes so many other goals that the city has articulated that are really important. i look forward

why the seismic waves traveled for such a long distance. >> people felt the shaking all the way from maine to atlanta to cleveland. >> there's another tremor. >> why would a quake be felt so far and wide when the west coast would only be felt in the bay area. the hazards team. >> that's because earth is hotter in the east coast. the seismic energy doesn't travel away from the earthquake fault nearly as far. >> while california is known as earthquake country, it's not as well known that most of the u.s. is at risk for an earthquake. this shows a few american states in white that do not have a moderate to serious earthquake hazard. >> they are not very common, but they do happen. >> they don't know what triggered the virginia quake. >> so you have faults created back a long, long time ago. >> they believe it's on a fault that slowly built up stress. >> we believe it was faults that farmed when africa and north america formed together. >> that seismic zone last saw an earthquake in 1897. there were quakes in the midwest 200 years ago equal to or bigger in magnitude. but the west still e

>> reporter: martin, this occurred in an area known to have seismic activity, called the virginia seismiceated many years ago when the appalachian mountains were formed. by contrast, the sierra, nevada, mountains, associated with the san andreas fault. as it shows, it's still capable of causing earthquakes and i was speaking to dr. arthur lamb, the head of earthquake science at columbia university's observatory who said that the term wake-up call is, of course, an overused term, but this is a wake-up call. that there are earthquakes in the east. there are areas, throughout the united states, including the east, and throughout the world, that are not associated usually or mindful of earthquakes but are very capable of causing earthquakes. he said this will make us take a second look at our buildings because there's an old saying in earthquake service that earthquakes themself seldom kill people. what kills. see badly constructed buildings. if we look at buildings that are old that have bricks on them or structures like tunnels and bridges that can cause a lot of damage if they're severely

it must be seismically safe. you see behind me the team of people who have been assembled and have been working together for the last two and a half years. a few were working together even before the 2008 passage to ensure this was engineer properly. we learned from the past if we did not invest in the engineering assets of this, we would be surprised. so, our general hospital staff, the public works and engineers, to adequately designed this. is amazing. we have design in this hospital. the project is going to love golf what they call -- is going to evolve what they call bayside meters. in case this building suffers a seismic event, it will be able to move with the building and absorb all the shock. this is exactly what the state has approved in order to be compliant with the standards from the state. in doing so, at it also kept a promise to the voters and to our city. it is on time and within budget. it is about 14% done at this time. during the last two and a half years, it has contributed hundreds of jobs to

its seismic upgrades. extremelif you know me, one of my passions is to be sure we are ready for the next earthquake. for folks who could not move elsewhere, to feel safe in the building they were a part of, helped to contribute to making seismically safe, and our earnings and ability to have earthquake insurance cover them, we have a fantastic story to tell here. in addition, it has added 105 units to the whole 10-year end homeless program that we committed to. this helps to achieve 1800 units of those 3000 that we committed to building. i am sure the people that helped us write the program would be proud. these units are not just high places for people. it is also a service.

so the hot rock absorbs seismic energy so it dies out very quickly, the cold rock transmits seismic energy very, very tkeurbtly and that means the earthquakes are felt over a much wider area east of the rockies than in the west. jenna: it's interesting. dr. ebel, we've talked about earthquakes, a few of them over the last years or so and we've talked about aftershocks and foreshocks, foreshocks that are before a larger earthquake comes. do you think this was a foreshock and a bigger earthquake is on the way for the east stkphoeft. >> the odds are heavily in favor that it is the main shock. it is the biggest one that will happen. but we can't rule out the possibility that it's a foreshock. you look at japan, we had a 7.2 earthquake. normally, that would be the main shock, but two days later there was a 9. o earthquake, so there was a case where a very large earthquake ended up being a foreshock of a truly massive earthquake. we don't expect that here in the east but we can't rule out that possibility. jenna: science only brings us so far. as a scientist, you nethat well. always nice to have

they will be looking for major seismic faults and if they don't have it, that would require the owner of the property to bring in an engineer to actually do a seismic assessment of the building. >> thank you. >> any further commissioner comments? item sixc -- 6 itemc. . >> we have some issues we are working through and our city attorney -- we still hope to have the beginning of the project in the beginning of september. >> let me backtrack for a moment. this we did not receive any public comment on the proposed legislation? >> at the call for public comment? it was suggested we do it all at the end. >> thank you. >> i have a question on the permit tracking system. are other departments involved to make sure reading lines up? >> yes. the initial implementation of the system will be with planning and dbi. more than once a day, we need several times a week. they're very involved. >> what are we going to have it up and running? >> the rfp was a 24 month project. that would be two years from september 1st. there is a possibility they could get it sooner, but the project is for 24 months. >

professor hisada is an expert in seismic engineering. he ran simulations to reproduce the vibrations of the building based on the seismic data on march 11th. >> translator: the quake severely volted upper floors but also bending on the mid-level. >> reporter: the building made large swaying motions much like a dancer's hips rotating. >> translator: the movement is called the secondary mode. >> reporter: the secondary mode is repeated in short cycles. the vibrations are different in nature from the long period motions. the long period motions that sway the top floors of high-rises are called primary mode movements. the secondary mode, on the other hand, has shorter cycles and effects the mid-level floors most seriously. in the march 11th quake, a massive slippage took place along the faultline. this triggered two shock modes simultaneously. the primary mode jolted the upper mode and the secondary mode caused significant damage to the mid-level floors. so now we know major quakes generate a secondary shock mode that can effect buildings. t

professor hisada is an expert in seismic engineering. he ran simulations to reproduce the vibrations of the building based on the seismic data on march 11th. >> translator: the quake severely volted upper floors but also bending on the mid-level. >> reporter: the building made large swaying motions much like a dancer's hips rotating. >> translator: the movement is called the secondary mode. >> reporter: the secondary mode is repeated in short cycles. the vibrations are different in nature from the long period motions. the long period motions that sway the top floors of high-rises are called primary mode movements. the secondary mode, on the other hand, has shorter cycles and effects the mid-level floors most seriously. in the march 11th quake, a massive slippage took place along the faultline. this triggered two shock modes simultaneously. the primary mode jolted the upper mode and the secondary mode caused significant damage to the mid-level floors. so now we know major quakes generate a secondary shock mode that can effect buildings. t

. >> earth is hotter in california than it is in the east coast and when the earth is hot, the seismic energy doesn't travel away from the earthquake fault nearly as far. >> while california is known as earthquake country, it's not as well known that most of the u.s. is at risk for an earthquake. this usds map shows a few american states in white that do not have a moderate to serious earthquake hazard. >> they aren't very common, but they do happen. >> they don't know what triggered the virginia quake. >> you have these faults created back along, long time ago. >> they believe it's on an ancient fault that slowly built up stress. >> we believe it was on a fault that formed when africa and north america collided together hundreds and millions of years ago. >> broker says that seismic zone last saw an earthquake in 1897. seismologists say there were quakes equal to or bigger in magnitude. but the west still experiences the most quakes because it rests on a plate boundary. >> these plates are constantly moving and bumping into each other. the east coast is not a long a plate boundary. >>

seismic shock. an earthquake rocks the north coast of north america, but there is no major damage. it is 9:00 a.m. here in singapore. >> it's 2:00 a.m. here in london, broadcasting to viewers in the u.k. and around the world. this is "newsday." rebels are celebrating overrunning gaddafi's headquarters in tripoli, destroying the symbol of a 42-year dictatorship. he has reportedly called his exit a tactical move, but no one knows exactly where he or his sons are. members of the national transitional council are on their way to tripoli to begin forming an interim government. despite the rebels' victorious claims, a pro-gaddafi television station has broadcast what it said was a live television interview with a spokesperson, mr. ibrahim. he threatened to turn libya into a burning volcano. >> they want to destroy libya. they have already destroyed electricity, water, houses, schools. they want to destroy libya on a platter of gold to the foreign company so that the structure will come to libya to rebuild again all these services. and they will have a piece of the big cake. but in fact,

even though it's a severe seismic event shall the plants are designed for this kind of a seismic event. there's no apparent damage to anything at the plant right now. >> let me back up. explain this to me. if there this is any sort of seismic event, any earth shaking, it automatically triggers the backup generators. this is per normal, is that correct? >> well, the seismic event directly does not. in this case, when the event occurred, it could knock out the off site power or the power feeding back to the station. once that power goes away, the diesel generators automatically supply the backup power and the unit automatically shuts down. >> i'm glancing down here. i understand that you all have declared an unusual event. which i guess is the phraseology for the lowest of the four emergency categories. can you just define unusual for me? >> caller: it's unusual when you lose off site power like this and two units are tripped with in seismic event. that's a normal precaution. we to that to inform the local and state communities about the event at the plant. make sure they're available sh

this airport needs to be seismically retrofitted. but that's not going to happen during the stalemate that could last through labor day. about 4,000 faa employees and some 80,000 construction workers are now out of work. almost 250 airport construction projects are on hold nationwide worth almost $11 billion. psych milk work at the airport in livermore is also on hold. construction of the $30 millionaire traffic control tower at oakland international also stopped. this, of course, not sitting well with local politicians. >> with this shutdown, there is no business, there are no jobs, and our economy is not being stimulated. >> now, here is where it really matters to you and me. it was thought this could bode well for passengers, because ticket taxes, which average about 10% of a round trip fare are suspended during this shutdown. you know, what the airlines they found a way around it. they found a loophole. most have raised their fares by amounts equivalent to those taxes so really just a big effort to keep their checkbooks balanced.

other local projects affected seismic work at the livermore airports. construction of oakland international's new air traffic control tower has stopped all together. overall 80,000 construction workers are out of work nationwide. that includes 60 or so in oakland building the new tower. the mayor addressed what this means from the bay area and beyond. >> it is a sad reminder of what's happening around the country. stimulus and jobs that could stop the recession are being stopped because of politics. >> reporter: as for some airline politics that directly affect you, the passengers, ticket taxes which average about 10% of a round trip are suspended. that should save you money but that's not the case. airlines found a way around that. most raised fares equivalent to the taxes. they lost $440 million in the first six months of this year, according to the air transport association. hard to believe considering just today msnbc is reporting that the airlines collectively -- they have collected $21 billion in those fees in all of last year 2010. this faa shutd

seismic hazard map.e recognize that earthquakes are a national hazard, that you can have damaging earthquakes in the central and eastern u.s. but, you know, these 19th century buildings that are unreinforced brick come down quite easily. even if the building itself doesn't come down, you can have failure of chimneys, get a lot of has we call non-structure damage. so the building itself is fine, but you could have bookcases falling over, light fixtures. that's why the red cross, i mentioned in your previous government, drop, cover, hold on. get under something sturdy. odds are your building may be okay but you can still be injured by falling debris. >> david applegate, who fought through the traffic to get on tonight. we appreciate it. thanks so much. >> thank you. >>> up next, we'll talk to a couple of our other correspondents in washington who felt the earthquake. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car and how much the people in your life cou

kwame holman has the details. >> holman: we have a seismic map from the u.s.survey, and a tool that calculates the intensity of the quake by zip code. that's on the rundown blog. and our global health unit examines ethical questions that can emerge when pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials overseas. there's been a 2,000% increase in such testing in the past two decades. plus, if you're curious about what presidents read on vacation, "art beat" lists selections from president obama and others. all that and more is on our web site, newshour dot pbs dot org. ray. >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we explore the rebel forces poised to lead libya, and update the path of hurricane irene. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. >> and with the

a look at where intimate experts are saying about the recent seismic activity. >> and cherrystone and was being designed in this building behind me may save thousands of lives in an earthquake, more and my story. >> passengers frustrated over recent protest speak out at a bart board meeting half the protesters reacted and what the transit agency will do or will not do during future protests. a coal case murder and the south bay has been sold that is all ahead. upset. well, who can afford a 150-dollar change fee? he was surprised with the verdict. you got that right. [ male announcer ] don't pay a change fee on top of a fare difference. fly southwest, the only major airline that never charges change fees. no exclusions! with jcp cash, earn ten dollars off when you spend just twenty-five storewide. and unlike other stores, we don't make you come back to save. get ten dollars off with no exclusions! we make style affordable, you make it yours! jcpenney. >> multiple use the earthquakes in less than 12 hours to with the more tree 0.6 earthquake. the first was last met the 11:36 p.m. is whe

the first is reevaluate the seismic and flooding hazards at all sites. second, perform seismic and flood protection walk downs. look at specific of all abilities. third, issue advanced notice rulemaking to address long loss of power, the blackout rule. fourth, b5b. fb. fire protection equipment. we have additional equipment and prevent a vote -- in the event accident and six, maintaining train it to severe accident management guidelines. we have a severe accident management guidelines. making sure that those are in court order and people are fully trained on those is a high priority. >> if you want to react to the half dozen. >> i do not have any disagreement. beyond that, there are not that many recommendations that the task force recommended for near- term action. so i think some of this discussion it is really about semantics. but four of the 12 recommendations were long term recommendations. two of them were targeted towards nrc action. there is only six recommendations directed towards licensees in the short term. >> were those the ones that the com

ease goes wrong is a solid because there's no seismic activity so they transmit the ways that energy across a larger distance rate you can view even more video by clicking the tab at the top of our home page, ktvu.com. >>> today's earthquake was felt a must-read by trading trading did not stop reading the markets had wanted their biases of the year. the dow industrial gained in a 22 points. the nasdaq shot higher by 22 points. it's dollars refund within 20 minutes. >>> scardino rally, they suggested a slower economy but not a recession it's also speculation that ben bernanke could announce monetary action by this i. salazar trade. >>> assuming to be driving the economy the number of people who bought new homes fell for the third straight months. the group responsible for yesterday's bart protests as it would do it again. in fact, anonymous is calling for another protest next monday. last night activism led to the closure of two bart stations and 40 arrests. >>> now two oakland were police are investigating a series of overnight shootings that led to one man dead and three others hosp

work has been done ahead of schedule out of concern for seismic safety and not because of the yacht race. >> by the morning, probably. the fog will come back but it will be a glorious evening and if you are heading to at&t, sunshine breaking out in the bay as expected. it will be warm but tell you about the cooling trend in the forecast. >>> a british scientist call it a wonder track. how you can get a long lasting tan. >> and houston, we've got a problem, nasa says the international space station may have to be temporarily abandoned. >>> didn't have a chance but the rain is coming down more than it was before. the wind is probably going faster. i'm concerned that my puppy. it's 5:00 and yeah. it really is raining and the rain as picked up. everybody take care and please stay inside otherwise it might go away. >> wow! >> you need a partner. >> she would overshadow me. >> that is something. that was really neat. >> that is the neat thing about all the new technology. >> we invited her to come and report this morning but don't worry. >> let's go outside. that was very cute. i'm glad we sho

standards didn't change and people generally rebuilt buildings as fast as they could without substantial seismic upgrades. can anybody tell us what is going on here with the building? here we have craig. go ahead. >> speak this way and loudly. >> what is going on here is an 8 to 14-story addition on the top of the historic building. first of all, you should know the original building here is steel and terra cotta building that in the '60s was clad with metal panels on little steel panels to give it that look. some of the terra cotta was scraped off. the current project will restore the facade of the historic building designed by burnam and root, a famous chicago architectural firm, with one of our most renowned architects working on the detail. the addition will be setback and made of a different color brick. the building will be changed from office use to a mix of hotel, time share and residential units. that is the story on the old chronicle building. >> we have a question over here. hold on. >> when is it due to be complete? >> my guess is, i don't know for sure, but on the order of a year an

work has been done ahead of schedule out of concern for seismic safety and not because of the yacht race>> by the morning, probably. the fog will come back but it will be a glorious evening and if you are heading to at&t, sunshine breaking out in the bay as expected. it will be warm but tell you about the cooling trend in the forecast. >>> a british scientist call it a wonder track. how you can get a long lasting tan. >> and houston, we've got a problem, nasa says the international space station may have to be temporarily abandoned. >>> didn't have a chance but the rain is coming down more than it was before. the wind is probably going faster. i'm concerned that my puppy. it's 5:00 and yeah. it really is raining and the rain as picked up. everybody take care and please stay inside otherwise it might go away. >> wow! >> you need a partner. >> she would overshadow me. >> that is something. that was really neat. >> that is the neat thing about all the new technology. >> we invited her to come and report this morning but don't worry. >> let's go outside. that was very cute. i'm glad we showe

there is concern about earthquake and seismic issues regarding the tower. it is to the south of the structure and looks like this tower is on the northwest side. if it were to fall and an earthquake, it would fall into lombard street or fall on to the parking garage. it is not close enough to fall. i don't think that it would be a concern. so i would have to be in support of this based on those points. commissioner sugaya: first, to the audience. the city views are not protected in terms of issues that come before this commission. i don't know if people know that, but we have had lots of cases, not necessarily so phone antennas, but height increases and other things were people have complained that the view is going to be blocked. it is not a consideration for this commission. secondly, a question to staff. the coverage maps that we received are fairly uniformly coded. it is ready for not very good coverage. yellow is usually sort of a coverage but it isn't great. green is indicated in those areas where coverage is fairly good. and we usually get maps that