Lately we’ve been covering specifics of applying earthquake preparedness methods to labs, data centers and warehouses so now it’s time to review the overall benefits of undertaking a seismic fastening program for your business.

The main purpose of this blog is to provide you with information on how best to position your business so that it can withstand the unpredictable nature of earthquakes.  Your best shot at minimizing the impact of a quake is to be prepared.  It’s key to ensuring that you continue operating after an earthquake.

A seismic fastening program will ensure that all of the potential hazards around your office and work space are secured in place to prevent loss or damage.  And those hazards could include equipment that you probably haven’t even thought of as being a potential problem.

Making the decision to secure equipment prior to a major seismic event will enhance your employees’ safety and your business continuity plans.  It’s that simple.

We’ve been at this for a long time at QuakeHOLD! Industrial, so you can rest assured that we know what we’re doing.   In fact, this year we’re celebrating our 20^th anniversary of being in business.

Our expertise is in non-structural seismic mitigation systems including laboratory fastening, clean room fastening, data center seismic mitigation, and office equipment safety fastening.  Our innovative countertop fasteners, floor fasteners, and laboratory restraints will protect your employees from seismic risks within your workplace.

Seismic Fastening Program

Even though it makes sense for a business in a high risk seismic threat zone to undertake a seismic fastening program, many business owners haven’t done it yet.  They insist on rolling the dice in the mistaken belief that the chances are slim to none of an earthquake impacting their business.

Not so say the experts.  USGS scientists tell us the threat of a ‘big one’ is very real, particularly on the West Coast, Midwest and the South, so it would be wise for businesses anywhere within those earthquake zones to take action now before it’s too late.

What’s that old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure?

Non-structural seismic mitigation has several benefits.  The #1 benefit of course is that it will keep your equipment secure.  By fastening your office furniture and equipment, you eliminate the risk of it all crashing down in an earthquake rendering it ineffective, not to mention destroying valuable data in the process.

As mentioned above, a seismic fastening program will also create a much safer work environment for your employees.  On top of that, a seismic fastening program is cost effective and provides inexpensive insurance as opposed to the high costs of replacing everything that has been damaged or broken beyond repair.

Our fastening systems feature recommended bracing techniques that are used to secure equipment to the wall, floor and desktop so that everything stays in place in an earthquake.

Special floor mounts and wall mounts have been developed to secure the heavier pieces, while flexible straps, quick-release buckles and industrial strength adhesives are used to brace smaller desktop equipment and appliances.

Seismic Protection Products and Services

Earthquakes are unpredictable, so being prepared is the most practical course of action to take.  If your equipment is unsecured it could be damaged or lost and the best way to prevent that from happening is to take action now to avoid major financial and logistical headaches later.

QuakeHOLD! Industrial is the leader in seismic fastening programs.  You can research the full range of seismic protection products and services that we offer by going to our website

And regardless of the size of your business, a free site survey and evaluation will determine how best to meet your needs.

If your business is based in an earthquake zone, don’t put off earthquake preparedness any longer.  Get with a seismic fastening program today.

September is National Preparedness Month. It’s a time when we’re encouraged to not just think about being prepared for an emergency, but to actually do something about it and earthquake preparedness is one of the focal points.

In proclaiming National Preparedness Month, President Obama spoke of the need to strengthen the USA’s security and readiness for the full range of hazards that we face, including natural disasters, cyber attacks,

pandemics and terrorist attacks.

The President said that by empowering people with information about the risks we face, we can take action to protect ourselves, our families and the country.

Among the many things that he said we can do is to prepare a family emergency plan, have emergency kits on hand and get involved in community preparedness efforts.

This advice is also very much applicable to the workplace.

Non-Structural Seismic Mitigation

Our focus this month, as always, is on earthquake preparedness as it relates to businesses. There are seven steps to earthquake safety. The first step is what’s technically known as non-structural seismic mitigation. What that means in layman’s terms is securing the contents of your office, data centers, labs and so on.

Tall, top-heavy pieces of equipment should be secured, along with other things around the office such as computers, TVs and file cabinets, so that they won’t topple over.

An earthquake can set you back big time or maybe even ruin your business altogether if you lose valuable equipment and data that isn’t secured.

Safety for your employees is another huge benefit from bracing equipment and office contents. Securing potential hazards results in a safer environment for your work force because it minimizes the risk of injuries

to employees from falling objects.

If your business is located in an earthquake zone, you can’t afford to put off earthquake preparedness for one more day. If an earthquake were to strike tomorrow how would your business fare?

Disaster Supplies

Apart from securing all of your equipment, you should also be thinking about disaster supplies and emergency kits for your employees.

You can avail a variety of kits to meet different situations. There is a 10-person Site Safety Kit for the office and workplace. It contains emergency items to sustain up to 10 people for 72 hours.

Toy can also avail Evacuation Kits that are designed for individuals to take with them when they’re evacuated from office buildings. Each kit has enough food, water and other essential items in it for one person for 24 hours.

And there is the Survive-All Vest, a post disaster survival kit that’s a wearable vest. It contains a three-day supply of food and water for one person, plus a host of other emergency items. It is particularly useful for safety and facility managers. It is essential for earthquake preparedness.

This blog is all about earthquake preparedness and we’ve given you lots of information on how to secure valuable equipment in your office, lab and data center, but hospital seismic mitigation is another important topic that needs to be covered.

Think about it.  There are many moving parts in a hospital that are critical to its ability to function on a daily basis and deliver the health care services it’s designed to provide.

A hospital is unquestionably a facility that simply cannot afford to lose any of its vital equipment, hence the need for hospital seismic mitigation.

One of our constant themes is that earthquakes are extremely unpredictable, therefore being prepared is the key element to ensuring your business continues to function after an earthquake.  If you are a safety manager, facility manager or EH&S person at a hospital, the very best thing you can do is to make sure that all the potential hazards in your facility are secured in place to prevent loss or damage.

That’s where hospital seismic mitigation comes in to play.

As technology forces higher capital investments, it's essential to ensure protection from disaster through non-structural seismic mitigation, such as clean room fastening, laboratory fastening, and countertop and floor fastening.

QuakeHOLD! Industrial's Hospital and Laboratory Installation Division has showcased the importance and significance of securing costly equipment.

We are celebrating 20 years of being in business in 2011 and in that time we have custom designed rack, shelving and floor fastening non-structural seismic mitigation systems for every component of a hospital.

Hospital Seismic Mitigation

Obviously, hospitals play a significant role in a community after an earthquake, or any major emergency, because that’s where the injured are taken for treatment; therefore they need to remain operational at all times.  If a hospital’s ability to care for patients is hampered because of damaged equipment lives could be put at risk.

Non-structural seismic mitigation will benefit a hospital immensely.  It will help to keep its patients’ lifelines intact, as well as make for a safer work environment for its staff.

Hospital seismic mitigation programs are cost effective and in essence represent inexpensive insurance when compared to the cost of replacing all the sensitive equipment and appliances in a hospital.

Everything needs to be fastened down so that a hospital’s vital life-saving equipment doesn’t end up as a pile of junk on the floor.

Our fastening systems feature recommended bracing techniques that are used to secure equipment to the wall or floor so that everything will stay in place in the event of an earthquake.

A hospital carries out necessary and commendable work in patient care, so ensuring that it can continue to do that after an earthquake must be a priority.

Seismic Protection Products and Services

Earthquakes are unpredictable, so being prepared is the most practical course of action to take.  If the hospital environment isn’t secured equipment could be damaged or lost, which in turn could cause complications or worse for patients.  The best way to prevent those possibilities from occurring is to take action now to avoid major financial and logistical headaches later.

QuakeHOLD! Industrial is the leader in hospital seismic mitigation.  We have more than 50 years’ combined experience and you can research the full range of seismic protection products and services that we offer by going to our website (see our contact information).

And regardless of the capacity of a hospital, a free site survey and evaluation will determine how best to meet its needs.

If your facility is based in an earthquake zone, don’t put off earthquake preparedness any longer.  Get with the hospital seismic mitigation program today.

The purpose of the exercise was to promote awareness of earthquake preparedness and more precisely to show the public what to do beforehand.

Businesses across California, along with schools, federal and state agencies and the general public will all stop what they’re doing at 10:21am on 10/21 to ‘Drop, Cover and Hold On’.



Also part of this year’s ShakeOut theme is the crucial ‘Secure Your Space’ message.

Secure Your Space

QuakeHOLD! Industrial partnered with the San Diego Office of Emergency Services, the County and the San Diego Police Department to get the earthquake preparedness message out via the media.

A local Middle School hosted the event where the Big Shaker, the world’s largest mobile earthquake simulator, was front and center. QuakeHOLD! Industrial simulated quakes of magnitude 6.8-7.5 in order to demonstrate to students and the media alike the benefits of taking the time to secure potential hazards around the home and office.

From a business standpoint, securing items in data centers, server rooms, clean rooms and labs is probably one of the smartest things you can do if your operations are located in an earthquake zone.

And by the way, it’s not just the West Coast of the US that is susceptible to quakes. Check out the New Madrid Fault and how many states would be affected if that fault was to rupture.

Many businesses have done little to get prepared and they may well regret their inaction.

The most recent study conducted by researchers at UCLA found that the vast majority of Californians haven’t done very much at all to get prepared for an earthquake and when the big one comes, and the experts tell us it will, they could wind up out of business because they weren’t prepared.

Seismic Protection Products

In an earthquake top-heavy things that are unsecured will crash to the floor, as will unsecured desktop appliances and equipment. That’s why it’s vitally important for a business to undertake non-structural seismic mitigation.

To start with, you could consider utilizing seismic protection products and services such as those offered at QuakeHOLD! Industrial.

The expertise of Quake Hold Industrial encompasses floor fastening systems, lab equipment fastening and countertop fasteners. We also specialize in emergency supplies such as vacuation kits for employees.

There is
much more information on the various products and services offered by Quake Hold Industrial on their website www.quakeholdindustrial.com



Risk Assessment

To help figure out your needs you can contact QuakeHOLD! Industrial to schedule a risk assessment of your premises.

QuakeHOLD! Industrial has been reminding you repeatedly during the past few months, if you

run a business in a seismically active zone, you need to become pro-active about earthquake preparedness and suggesting you to start today.

Amazingly, even though the area from Seattle south to Vancouver sits adjacent to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a seismically active region, very few people there have done anything about being prepared. The people living there have not yet understood the value of earthquake preparedness.

And given that damage estimates were put as high as $4 billion from the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake in February 2001, we were astonished to find that folks in the Pacific Northwest have become rather blasé about the possibility of another big shaker rocking their part of the world. It is always said that precaution is better than cure hence people living in this zone should be educated about earthquake preparedness.

They seem to think that California is the only part of the West Coast where earthquakes pose a threat, yet the reality is that western Washington gets about a thousand earthquakes every year. Therefore, if your business is located in that part of the state, make sure you discuss about your earthquake safety with an earthquake preparedness specialist.

While not every temblor is going to be severe enough to cause extensive damage, the problem is that we just don’t know when the next big one will strike, so a word to the wise is be prepared because if you’re not, your business may not survive a big earthquake. So to protect the business and the employees from potential hazards of earthquake have an expert earthquake preparedness team organize and secure your home and office.

Unsecured tall, top-heavy pieces of equipment can easily topple over and crash to the floor, lab equipment can smash and data can be lost forever. Any one of these things can be a major setback for your business, but when combined they can put you out of business altogether.

The bottom line is that seismic activity is not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest, but the good news is that damage to or loss of equipment can be avoided by undertaking a non-structural seismic mitigation program. Contact an earthquake preparedness expert today to eliminate the unnecessary hazards.

Earthquake Preparedness encompasses a lot of different things from securing office equipment and furniture to having a plan for what to do after an emergency and of course having emergency kits on hand.

If you haven’t done any of these things then it could seem somewhat overwhelming, but the reality is that if you stick your head in the sand and just hope for the best, you could end up paying a very heavy price.

Right now in Washington State there’s a pretty good Public Information campaign going on that encourages people to get prepared for the onset of winter.

That’s because Old Man Winter can sometimes unleash harsh conditions in the Pacific Northwest and one of the things the campaign urges Washingtonians to do is get emergency kits.

If you have one in your car, for example, then if you get stuck somewhere at least you’ll have basic essentials to help you survive. Most of us don’t like to think about these things, but what’s worse? Thinking about these things and making the effort to get prepared, or ignoring it all and being caught unprepared?

Seismic Fastening Program

The same is true of your business. If you live in an earthquake zone, say anywhere from Washington south to California, it would be foolhardy to roll the dice and hope that you’ll be immune to the next big earthquake.

And as all the experts tell us, it’s not a question of ‘if’ we get one but ‘when’ we get one, so you’d better be prepared.

That means not just learning more about earthquake preparedness it also means undertaking seismic bracing of your valuable equipment.

That is what we specialize in at QuakeHOLD! Industrial and we have solutions for all kinds of applications.

What we’re talking about here is securing equipment in data centers, server rooms, labs and such like. Things that could topple over and smash on the floor and consequently adversely impact your business operations if you were without them.

Non-Structural Seismic Mitigation is how it’s referred to in the industry and it’s really the best way to safeguard your equipment against damage or loss in an earthquake. It will also help to ensure the effectiveness of your business continuity plans.

You can read up on the various products and services that are available to you on our website www.quakeholdindustrial.com



Risk Assessment

To help determine your needs please contact us to schedule a free risk assessment of your business.

As we’ve been urging you repeatedly this year, if you run a business in a seismically active zone you need to become pro-active about earthquake preparedness and we strongly encourage you to start today.

Did you know that in California it is mandatory for a business to seismically brace non-structural items? Under Title 24, Section 1613A of the California Building Code, if you own a business you must undertake earthquake preparedness measures.

While that may seem a little daunting to the uninitiated, the reality is that non-structural seismic mitigation is a relatively seamless process.

The building code outlines the following: movable items that are five feet or taller must be braced, along with things like cabinets and bookcases that are at least six feet tall, equipment that weighs more than 400 lbs and is more than four feet high, plus temporary containers of flammable or hazardous materials.

Vessels, including tanks and pressurized spheres on braced or un-braced legs, bins or hoppers, batteries on racks and all other self-supporting structures that are not otherwise covered also need to be secured.

Phew! That sure seems like a lot, but don’t be fazed by it.

If this information is news to you, the good news is that earthquake preparedness and seismic bracing and non-structural seismic mitigation etc all services are available online. Search for non-structural seismic mitigation in Google and you will find Quake Hold Industrial and many more to cater to your service.

Equipment Fastening

When we talk about fastening equipment what we really mean is that expensive items in labs, clean rooms, data centers and so on should be secured.

HPLCs, centrifuges, mass spectrometers and more can all be fastened in place so that they won’t come crashing down in the next earthquake.

Not only is it a matter of adhering to building codes, it’s also good business practice to secure your equipment to prevent damage and loss, not to mention avoiding potential injuries to your employees.

Don’t feel bad if you’re not totally familiar with the concept of non-structural seismic mitigation or the seismic protection products and services that are available these days because unless you’ve been living in earthquake country for a while you may not have had reason to look into it.

But now that you know a little more about it, as well as the fact that you need to do it, you at least know where to get information.

Risk Assessment

To help determine your needs contact an earthquake preparedness company to schedule a free risk assessment of your business.

As we’ve been urging you repeatedly this year, if you run a business in a seismically active zone you need to become pro-active about earthquake preparedness and we strongly encourage you to start today.

Earthquake Preparedness should be uppermost on your mind right about now, particularly if you are based in California because of the Great California ShakeOut.

At 10:21am on 10/21 around 7 million people will Drop, Cover and Hold On as part of the biggest earthquake drill in US history. Even people in Yuma, Arizona will be getting involved.

And next
year, there will be a Great Central US ShakeOut in April. Why? Because according to the earthquake experts, there will be a big one in the order of a magnitude 8.0 somewhere in California sooner rather than later and if we’re not prepared life will become very dicey.

Secure Your Business

What being prepared really means as far as a business goes is making sure that all the potential hazards around the workplace are secured, having emergency kits or emergency supplies on hand for your employees and ensuring that they are working in a safer environment.

That means seismic mitigation is something that you, as a business owner, should look into now if you haven’t already done so.

It’s all too easy to dismiss it as something that you’ll eventually get around to later, but the problem with that approach is that the longer you leave it the greater the chances are of an earthquake wreaking havoc on your business.

It is absolutely critical for a business to undertake non-structural seismic mitigation.

What is that? It’s making sure that everything that is heavy enough to hurt people if it falls on them is fastened down. Tall items, top-heavy equipment or office file cabinets all come under this category.

An earthquake preparedness expert can take all the worry and effort out of the process for you. There are few well renowned organizations with more than 50 years’ combined experience in seismic bracing that can provide you solution for all your needs. You can also avail customized fasteners to fit your particular application.

You can also look for full range of seismic protection products and services, which are developed specifically for commercial application. If you run a business in a seismically active zone, you need to become pro-active about earthquake preparedness and we suggest that you should start today.

The purpose of the exercise, which is now in its third year, is to raise awareness of earthquake preparedness.

Businesses across the Golden State, along with schools, government agencies and the community in general will all stop what they’re doing at 10:21am on 10/21 to ‘Drop, Cover and Hold On’.

Also part of this year’s ShakeOut theme is the important ‘Secure Your Space’ message.

You can get more information about what’s planned, as well as sign up your own business

to participate, at http://www.shakeout.org

Secure Your Space

From a business standpoint, securing items in data centers, server rooms, warehouses and offices is probably one of the most crucial programs you can undertake if your operations are in an earthquake zone.

Many
businesses have done little, if anything, about getting prepared and that lack of action could come back to haunt them.

We say that because the most recent studies have shown that the vast majority of businesses in California have done precious little in the way of getting themselves prepared for an earthquake and when the big one comes, which it will, they could be left ruing their inaction.

You see,
here’s what happens during earthquakes. The tall, top-heavy things that aren’t secured topple over and crash to the floor. The same can happen to unsecured desktop appliances and equipment. So you can imagine what might happen to a business if, for example, its servers are rendered useless, or expensive equipment in the clean room gets smashed, or its CPUs end up in pieces on the floor.

Just one of those incidents on its own could knock a business offline at least temporarily, but when combined a business would be crippled, which is precisely why it is so critical for a business to undertake non-structural seismic mitigation.

And it’s not just California where businesses have been lackadaisical about preparedness. Similar data suggests the Pacific Northwest and the central US fall into a similar category.

Recognizing that, authorities in Washington State conducted their own ‘Big Rumble 2010’ disaster

preparedness exercise in Kitsap County and their counterparts in the central part of the country are planning the first ‘Great Central US ShakeOut’ for April 28, 2011.

Equipment Fastening

While ShakeOut is expected to draw widespread attention to earthquake preparedness and hopefully encourage more businesses in California to take it more seriously, you might be one of those owners wondering just what you should be doing to get your business prepared for an earthquake.

To start with, you could consider utilizing seismic protection products and services such as those offered by QuakeHOLD! Industrial.

Our expertise encompasses floor fastening systems, lab equipment fastening and countertop fasteners.

Depending on the size and type of items to be secured, we use a variety of fastening

methods.

Some examples – for free standing items we might use a four-corner system of industrial strength straps and floor anchors, flexible straps and quick release buckles for countertop items, and netting to secure loose items on a rack.

There is much more information on the various fastening systems that we have developed on our website www.quakeholdindustrial.com

Risk Assessment

To help figure out our solutions for your needs you can contact us to schedule a risk assessment of your premises.

As we’ve been reminding you repeatedly during the past few months, if you run a business in a seismically active zone, you need to become pro-active about earthquake preparedness and we suggest that you should start today.