When Good Science Won (but it wasn't easy): California's Rise to Earthquake Safety Leadership

There ought to be a law! How many times have we said and heard this desire? From his extensive experience with crafting, advocating, and implementing many of California's earthquake safety laws, author Robert A. Olson takes the reader into the process by answering the critical question: How are earthquake safety requirements conceived and made into laws?

To illustrate the process, he draws upon history to show how the policy stage was set immediately after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake when two precedent-setting measures were enacted: the "Field Act" that centralized at the state level the planning, design, and construction of public schools, and the "Riley Act" that set a minimum standard for constructing buildings in general. Olson also draws on other events, such as the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake and the non-earthquake caused Saint Francis Dam failure of 1928, and the steady mobilization of advocacy groups, to add a broader context of how the San Fernando earthquake of 1971 prompted a special joint legislative committee to sponsor noteworthy laws.

The politics of enacting state laws soon after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake include requiring local general plans to address earthquake safety, stipulating rigorous state standards for construction of new hospitals, and calling for establishment of a Seismic Safety Commission.

From his view as a political scientist, Olson defines four "waves" that characterize California's earthquake safety evolution. Wave One addresses the early disasters and the two laws stemming from the Long Beach earthquake. Wave Two focuses only on the legislative consequences of the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. For Waves Three and Four Olson summarizes legislative efforts following the 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge earthquakes.

This fascinating book is as much about historic earthquakes as it is about legislative politics: the process that every proposed California law undergoes from idea to law (or rejection). The bills that were passed into law are testaments to the earnestness and diligence of lawmakers, volunteer advocates and staffers whose desire was to protect the people of California.

Robert A. Olson is the retired president of Robert Olson Associates Inc., a California-based consulting firm that specialized in hazard mitigation, disaster prevention, emergency management planning and training, contingency planning, policy research and advocacy, and community post-disaster recovery planning. Mr. Olson earned a BA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960 and his MA in political science from the University of Oregon in 1964. He served as (1) Planning Officer and Regional Representative for the U.S. Office of Emergency Preparedness (now the Federal Emergency Management Agency) from 1964 to 1971; (2) Assistant Director, San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) from 1971 to 1975; and (3) the first Executive Director of the California Seismic Safety Commission from 1975 to 1981. His consultancy remained open from 1981 until his retirement, with occasional project work continuing until 2020. During his career Mr. Olson has been affiliated with UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies; Earthquake Engineering Research Center; and the Center for Environmental Design Research. While with the MTC, he led the organizing of the BART Impact Studies program between MTC and UC Berkeley's Center for Urban and Regional Development. Mr. Olson also has held research positions at Stanford University, University of Illinois, California Institute of Technology, Florida International University, and the University of Southern California. In addition, he has independently reviewed hazards research proposals and projects for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Associated Universities. He was the first member with a social science education admitted to membership in 1973 in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. He served as its Vice President, a member of the Board of Directors, as Acting Executive Director, a member of several post-earthquake investigation teams, and a member of the Editorial Board, and served on various committees, including Public Policy, Urban Earthquake Hazards Reduction, and the Seismic Performance of Buildings. Honorary membership was bestowed on him in 2004. Mr. Olson helped design and oversee the initial development and testing of FEMA's "HAZUS" multi-hazard loss estimation software. He was a contributing author to the National Research Council's book titled Facing Hazards and Disasters, and wrote an article on a federal mitigation law's implementation for the Journal of Hazard Mitigation and Risk Assessment. He co-authored Some Buildings Just Can't Dance: Politics, Life Safety, and Disaster that examined the problems the City of Oakland had after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He and others completed a research study on the building safety problems that the City of Oroville in Butte County faced following the 1975 earthquake. Mr. Olson was a member of California's Tsunami Policy Working Group and worked with a consultancy to prepare a guidebook for local planners on minimizing exposure to potential tsunami damage.