When Disaster Strikes: Rapid Building Assessment Training for Venezuela and Latin America

The recent disaster in Venezuela has revealed something communities across the world eventually confront: in the aftermath of catastrophe, the most urgent question isn’t just how to rebuild, it’s which buildings are still safe to enter, and which are safe to reinhabit right now. Getting that answer quickly and correctly can mean the difference between saving lives and losing more of them, which is exactly why the ability to perform rapid, professional post-disaster building inspections safety evaluations matters so much.

Following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, California’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) commissioned the Applied Technology Council to develop ATC-20 and ATC-45, rapid inspection guides now used to train and certify licensed architects and engineers across the U.S. to evaluate damaged buildings and post red, yellow, or green safety placards to clearly and simply indicate the level of a building’s safety to reoccupy post-disaster. This training, known as the Safety Assessment Program (SAP), has grown into a nationwide network of licensed professionals who volunteer after earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes to help their communities recover.

The International Code Council (ICC), long known for developing the model building codes that communities adopt to prevent catastrophic building destruction as a result of disasters in the first place, built on this foundation to create the When Disaster Strikes (WDS) program and it’s WDS – Evaluator course, a course expanding the concepts that formed the basis of SAP’s methodology for wider use and to address a multi-hazard approach across the U.S. and abroad. In direct response to requests from regulators, practitioners, and other concerned parties throughout Latin America, ICC is now working to develop an online, Spanish language version of it’s WDS – Evaluator course, with supporting materials designed for the region. As a first step, ICC is offering a free three-hour introductory course on August 7, open to any English speaking architect or engineer in Venezuela and across Latin America, led by ICC’s senior Technical Trainer who developed the WDS program at ICC, and joined by ICC’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. This is the first in what ICC hopes will be an ongoing series helping the region’s professionals prepare for and respond to disasters.

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