September 2012
Pre-Disaster Mitigation Planning for East Carolina University
Summary Report
The University of North Carolina System, using funds from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), has been working since October 2007 to develop a PreDisaster Mitigation (PDM) Planning Process for the UNC System as a whole, and on
each of the campuses. This effort is the first FEMA-funded PDM planning project that
targets a complete system of universities. Accordingly, a team led by faculty and staff
from UNC Charlotte with support from UNC Chapel Hill, East Carolina, UNC
Wilmington, and NC State University, has worked with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) Regional Office in Atlanta, the State Division of
Emergency Management (NCEM), and UNC General Administration to initiate this PreDisaster Mitigation (PDM) Planning Process. Our team also includes an engineering
consultant firm, Zapata Engineering of North Carolina, Inc.
This PDM Planning process is being coordinated and combined on a campus-by-campus
basis with other on-going PDM efforts on each campus that may be underway. For
example, many campuses have implemented emergency communication systems; most
are engaged in business continuity planning; perhaps all have participated in pandemic
flu planning.
In some cases, this project may be the initial effort to develop a
comprehensive, repeatable process for identifying long-range mitigative actions that will
aid campuses in protecting their most important assets from the effects of natural hazards.
Early in calendar year 2010, campuses from the eastern part of the state agreed to
participate in this project: East Carolina University, Fayetteville State University, UNC
Pembroke, Elizabeth City State University, NC State University, NC Central University,
and NC School of Science and Math. Campuses in the western part of the state have
FEMA approved plans as of fall 2011: UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro, NC A & T
University, Winston-Salem State University, NC School of the Arts, Appalachian State
University, UNC Asheville, and Western Carolina University. UNC Chapel Hill’s PDM
Plan was approved by FEMA in the spring of 2011 and UNC Wilmington has been
officially recognized (in 2009) as a “Disaster Resilient University” (DRU) as a result of
their previous PDM plan development.
Ultimately, all seventeen campuses will be included as a coordinated planning process,
under the overall guidance of Mr. Brent Herron, Assistant Vice President for Campus
Safety and Emergency Operations at UNC General Administration. In developing this
statewide, all-campus planning process, the FEMA project is under the direction of Dr.
Edd Hauser, Professor in Civil Engineering at UNC Charlotte and Director of the Center
for Disaster Management.
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PDM Planning Process Summary Report – East Carolina University, pg. 2
From the outset of the project, East Carolina University has been a very aggressive and
involved campus in the mitigation planning process. Over the course of the work on the
East Carolina University campus, key personnel have included (among others): Tom
Pohlman, Environmental Health & Safety Manager; Bob Bentz, Assistant Director for
Enterprise Systems & Data Center Operations; Rocky Howell, ITCS; Karen Mulcahy,
Teaching Assistant Professor Department of Geography; Ron Mitchelson, Professor and
Chair Department of Geography; Griffin Avin, Director of Facilities Maintenance; Paul
Carlson, Facility Mechanical Engineer; Ricky Hill, Interim Executive Director of
Facilities Services; Wayne Reeves, Assistant Director of Maintenance Engineering; Mike
Rowe, Assistant Director of Facilities Maintenance; Frank Knight, Event Manager of
Police Department; R.V. Parker, Assistant Director of Building Services; Tony Yamada,
Assistant Director of Utility Services; Doug Branch, Battalion Chief Life Safety
Services-Greenville Fire and Rescue; and William Wiseman, Assistant VC for Enterprise
Risk Management. These individuals constituted the “Core Committee” for developing
the PDM plan for East Carolina University.
East Carolina University core committee meetings were held in 2010 starting with an
introductory meeting giving an overview of the PDM planning process on May 26. Preinspection requirements for critical buildings were provided and East Carolina
University, using the UFIS template selected 11 buildings for engineering inspections. A
kickoff inspection meeting was held on June 29, 2010. On-site building inspections were
conducted on June 29, 30, and July 1, with a number of additional people from Facilities
Management working with the UNCC/Zapata Structural Engineering Team members. A
meeting to review the detailed building reports was conducted with core team members
on November 10, 2010. In addition to these meetings ECU campus representatives
attended two PDM Workshops held in Charlotte in June, 2011 and April 2012. Notes
from the meetings on campus at East Carolina University and PDM Workshops are
contained in the Appendix of this planning document.
This project will not only guide campuses towards greater disaster resilience, but is
recommended to become part of on-going efforts to create more sustainable university
communities. This PDM planning process is being prepared to meet FEMA requirements
[Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 and its implementing regulations]. Each campus will
have their own specific plan that recognizes priority facilities and systems that exist on
their campus. Based on guidance from FEMA documents and from ASCE publication
#5-07, a standard for carrying out facility assessments was made. Vertical infrastructures
included in this plan and listed by the NC Commission on Higher Education Facilities
(NCCHEF) provided the start of a database. New facilities still under construction and
not on the NCCHEF list including utility systems, roadways, etc. were also included.
Factors used to assess the importance of buildings and other vertical facilities) were:
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Facility occupancy
Emergency function
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Impact of facility loss (insured cost, or cost of replacement)
Impact of contents loss
Relevance to business continuity
Interconnectivity between facility and adjacent facilities
Value of research or administrative data and Vivarium/research animals
Historic or cultural value
PDM Planning Process Summary Report – East Carolina University, pg. 3
We developed a spreadsheet computer model, “University Facilities Importance
Spreadsheet” (UFIS) to evaluate all campus buildings in terms of importance based on
the eight evaluation factors. The list resulted from rating factors generated by the
computer model, and input from the East Carolina University Core Committee working
with the Study Team. Due to budget restrictions, only eleven buildings on this campus
were subjected to an engineering inspection by at least one Professional Engineer.
There are a number of facilities that based on other criteria, may be considered important
to the resilience of the East Carolina University campus. However, those facilities that
received the highest “importance rating” based on criteria recommended by ASCE
Standard #5-07, and resulting from the calculations generated from the UFIS model
output, were identified as most important, as explained in the Infrastructure Survey
Section of this planning document.
Most Critical Physical Facilities, East Carolina University campus
Facilities listed are not necessarily in order of importance.
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14 Street Steam Plant Main Campus
Cotanche Building
Main Campus
Eppes Work Center
Main Campus
Blount House
Main Campus
Joyner East
Main Campus
Todd Dining
Main Campus
Jones Residence Hall Main Campus
Health Sciences Utility Plant - Health Sciences Campus
Warren Life Sciences
- Health Sciences Campus
Brody Building
- Health Sciences Campus
Leo Jenkins Cancer Center - Health Sciences Campus
Facilities were inspected June 29, 30 and July 1, 2010
The facilities listed above were subjected to an extensive, on-site engineering inspection.
Each floor including basements, storage and utility rooms, and the roof of each of these
11 facilities was inspected. A detailed list of 92 questions was used to assess the
following facility components:
the building site, exterior envelope, structural
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components, interior contents, and utilities. The RISK of each of nine hazards (see page
4) damaging each building was calculated by a second spreadsheet-based model called
“University Facilities Risk Assessment Spreadsheet” (UFRAS).
Facilities were evaluated for their vulnerability to nine separate natural hazards, ranging
from hurricane force winds to flooding. The nine hazards that are being considered in this
project are:
PDM Planning Process Summary Report – East Carolina University, pg. 4
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High wind (straight line and hurricane)
Tornado
Seismic
Ice storm
Snow
Driving rain
Flood
Wildfire or building fire
Landslide
The inspection process consisted of a team of two structural engineers working together
with representatives from the Physical Plant that were usually the building
representatives, each with detailed knowledge of the facility and various problems that
should receive attention during the inspection tour. An average time to complete each
on-site inspection was approximately four hours. Converting the output of the UFRAS
computer model added approximately two days for each building.
In the Infrastructure Survey section of this planning document, a summary report on each
of the ten facilities included in the on-site assessment is shown. This is the summary
page condensed from a five to six page report that was prepared on each facility. Using
data describing the facility, a list of vulnerabilities and risks were followed by a
suggested list of mitigation measures that could be designed to address each vulnerable
component. The range of cost to implement each mitigation project was estimated to be
in one of four cost categories:
A - Less than $5,000
B - $5,000 to $25,000
C - $25,000 to $100,000
D - More than $100,000
Categories A and B were assessed to be able to be rectified by maintenance and repair
budgets available to the campus, whereas Categories C and D were more likely to be
eligible for FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance. Such grants are funded from FEMA
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through the North Carolina Emergency Management Division on a 75 percent Federal to
25 percent local basis. Information on applying for FEMA Mitigation Grants is
contained in the Appendices.
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UNC System Pre-Disaster
Mitigation (PDM) Planning
UNC System Pre-Disaster
Mitigation (PDM) Planning
UNC System Pre-Disaster
Mitigation (PDM) Planning
UNC System Pre-Disaster
Mitigation (PDM) Planning
PDM Planning - Goals
•To reduce the impact of natural hazards on campus
• To develop a natural hazards mitigation plan that
meets planning criteria outlined in 44 CFR, Part 201
• To develop a model PDM planning process for a
multi-campus university system
• To develop an innovative approach based on ASCE/
Building Security Council national standards
• To provide a mechanism to obtain FEMA Mitigation
Project Grant funding for facility improvements
Hazards included in Plan
• Wind (straight line and hurricane)
• Tornado
• Seismic/ earthquake
• Severe ice and/or snow
• Driving Rain
• Flood
• Wild fire or building fire
• Landslide
Contacts for each campus core group have
been recruited from emergency management,
business continuity, capital planning, facilities
management, security and emergency
response, IT, parking and transportation, and
other administrative offices
East Carolina University
Core Planning Group
• Tom Pohlman
• Bill Koch
• Bob Bentz
• Mike Alexander
• Major Frank Knight
• Tim Wiseman
• Ricky Hill
• Ron Mitchelson
• Karen Mulcahy
UNC System-wide
Planning and Technical Support
• Edd Hauser, Project Director
• David Weggel, Structural Engineer
• Sherry Elmes, PDM Planning Coordinator
• Zapata Engineering, On-site Technical Inspections
• Graduate Research Assistants in CEE, Geography/
GIS, and Public Policy
PDM Plans - Outline
• System-wide PDM Plan
• Campus PDM Plan Summary
• Campus Profile
• University Facilities Improvement System Model for
identifying facilities at highest risk
• On – site detailed building inspections
• UFRAS Model for quantifying relative risk by
structural engineer
• Campus review process
• Approvals and submittal to FEMA
Criteria for assessing facility risk
• Facility occupancy
• Emergency function of facility
• Impact of facility loss
• Impact of contents loss
• Relevance to business continuity
• Interconnectivity to adjacent infrastructure
• Value of research and/or administrative data (and
animals)
• Historic or cultural value
East Carolina University
Priority Facilities/Projects
• Blount House
• Brody Medical Sciences
• Cotanche Building
• Edward Nelson Warren Life Science Building
• Eppes Complex
• Jones Hall
• Joyner East
• Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center
• Medical Central Utility Plant
• Steam Plant
• Todd Dining Hall