2001 Nisqually quake shook company into being prepared

Managers at The Seattle Chocolate Co. saved a couple of bricks from the company's old headquarters to remind them what an earthquake can do.

The 2001 Nisqually quake ripped apart the unreinforced Sodo building where the confectioner turned out truffles and chocolate meltaways. No workers were injured in the magnitude 6.8 quake, but it took seven weeks and cost $700,000 to relocate and resume production. Already struggling financially — and with no earthquake insurance — the company's prospects seemed sticky as a bonbon left in the sun.

Today, Seattle Chocolates is expanding so fast that communications manager Ellen Gengler admits some of the new bookcases and office furniture haven't yet been secured to prevent them from toppling in a quake.

But everything in the production room is bolted down at the company's new South Park location. The building is reinforced concrete, not brick. Employees are drilled in earthquake safety, and computer records are copied every day and stored off-site.

Expanding sales, which include a contract to make Frango mints for Macy's, led managers to open a new distribution center in Iowa. The facility will also provide crucial backup in case another Seattle disaster disrupts the flow of chocolates to customers around the country.

"Since Nisqually, it has been on the top of our minds — how are we going to prepare for another earthquake," Gengler said.

The company's single-most-important preparation?

"One word," Gengler said. "Insurance."

Hurricane Katrina left water everywhere — except where it was needed most. People went days without clean drinking water, and firefighters were forced to siphon floodwaters to battle blazes around New Orleans.

Emergency planners in Bellevue knew an earthquake here could create similar havoc, toppling water-storage tanks at the same time broken gas lines sparked fires. Mangled freeways might make it impossible to truck in potable water from other communities.

So the city has spent $6 million since 1996 to bolster or rebuild seven tanks and concrete reservoirs. Six more will be upgraded over the next several years.

Seattle also is about halfway though its water-tank upgrades, with six tanks retrofitted and eight to go.

It's not a flashy effort. But it's the type of sober preparations governments need to make in earthquake zones, said Regan Sidie, design engineer for Bellevue's utilities department.

Before the retrofits, a pair of 2 million gallon tanks near Crossroads Mall were secured to their foundations with four-inch flanges. Now, the tanks are held in place by anchors that extend 40 feet into the ground.

Reporting on bright spots by Sandi Doughton, Seattle Times staff

On the 3900 block of Woodlawn Avenue North, every household knows what to do when an earthquake strikes.

After tending to injured family members and checking their own homes for damage, the Wallingford-area neighbors will gather at Kay Horner's house, then fan out on preassigned missions: Some will look in on elderly residents or gather up unattended children. Others will shut off gas lines. The search-and-rescue crew will canvass the area for first-aid emergencies or people trapped in rubble.

It goes without saying that every home is well-stocked with water, canned food, flashlights and the other necessities of emergency response.

"We know that in the case of a severe earthquake, we will be cut off from the fire departments, the police departments and the medics," said Horner, the 65-year-old who mustered this mini-FEMA under the auspices of a little-known city program called SDART — Seattle Disaster Aid and Response Teams. "We need to be self-reliant."

And creative. Neighbor Sharon Ehrig scoured hardware stores until she found surplus hard hats for $3 each and outfitted every person on the block. Neighbors pooled their money for an impressive first-aid kit.

Nearly 9,200 people in 459 neighborhood groups have gone through the simple training program since 1995. Publicized mainly by word of mouth, the program has a waiting list of nearly 120 groups — with more calling daily since Hurricane Katrina.

SDART's future is in question since founder LuAn Johnson resigned after a serious foot injury.

Seattle Emergency Management chief Barb Graff hopes the city will boost funding for the popular program. She also wants to enlist more city staff members and volunteers as instructors, and devise a more streamlined training program that will reach more neighborhoods in all parts of the city.

A second city program, Project Impact, offers free or low-cost training for homeowners who want to learn how to retrofit houses built before 1980.

Developed in 1997 with $1 million in FEMA seed money, the program is now funded by the city.