Winter 2025 23 NATURAL DISASTERS A Ship-Proof “Crumple Zone” Though the likelihood that large pieces of debris — like the ships moored in the harbor — will travel as far inland as the Marine Studies Building is low, the building’s architecture is nevertheless prepared for this worst-case scenario. On the roof, metal barricades and a rock garden mark the “crumple zone,” an area (10-feet wide at its widest point) that will sustain the impact of objects tossed ashore without harming either the people who’ve sought refuge on the roof or the I-beams holding it up. Supplies for Days The tsunami won’t simply wash in and recede, Moffett says. Waves created by the earthquake will slosh to and fro, oscillating as if in a bathtub, for up to two days. On the roof, a cache contains enough food, water and first-aid supplies for up to 920 people (and pets!) to survive for that period. (“Remember, I said ‘survival,’ not ‘happy,’” Moffett says of the 800 calories and gallon of water allotted to each person per day.) In the cache, a binder labeled “Open Me First” outlines protocol and includes tasks, like portioning out food rations, designed to keep survivors occupied. A Disaster-Proof Elevator The Marine Studies Building is the only Americans with Disabilities Act-approved vertical evacuation site in the country, and it’s all because of the elevator. It looks just like a regular elevator — so much so, in fact, that one of the architects’ challenges was how to represent its role in evacuation to people taught to avoid elevators in disasters. A reinforced elevator shaft makes it sturdy enough to operate during an earthquake, allowing people with limited mobility to access the roof.
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