Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.13
Earthquake fi nancial losses (
after
Coburn and Spence, 2002).
Country
Earthquake
Year
Loss ( $ bn)
GNP ( $ bn)
Loss (% GNP)
Nicaragua
Managua
1972
2.0
5.0
40.0
Guatemala
Guatemala City
1976
1.1
6.1
18.0
Romania
Bucharest
1977
0.8
26.7
3.0
Yugoslavia
Montenegro
1979
2.2
22.0
10.0
Italy
Campania
1980
45.0
661.8
6.8
Mexico
Mexico City
1985
5.0
166.7
3.0
Greece
Kalamata
1986
0.8
40.0
2.0
El Salvador
San Salvador
1986
1.5
4.8
31.0
USSR
Armenia
1988
17.0
566.7
3.0
Iran
Manjil
1990
7.2
100.0
7.2
Key
: GNP = gross national product.
as a percentage of the GNP. For example, in some 6 to 8 seconds, Nicaragua lost 40% of its GNP due
to the 1972 Managua earthquake (Table 1.13), while the 800% higher bill ($17 billion versus $ 2 billion)
from the Yerivan, Armenia earthquake constituted only 3% of the USSR's GNP (Elnashai, 2002 ).
The 'business interruption' element of earthquake impact has emerged lately as a major concern to
industry and hence to communities. This is the effect of largely non-structural building damage (e.g.
suspended light fi xtures, interior partitions and exterior cladding), which affects businesses adversely,
in turn leading to fi nancial disruption and hardship (Miranda and Aslani, 2003). In several countries,
such as the Mediterranean regions and Central America, where tourism is a vital industry, major eco-
nomic losses have resulted from damage to hotels and negative publicity due to earthquakes. Another
aspect of the economic impact is the 'loss of market share', which results from interruption to produc-
tion in industrial facilities and diffi culties in reclaiming the share of the market that the affected business
previously held.
The consequences of direct fi nancial losses, business interruption, and loss of market share on com-
munities and industry have led major multinationals to create risk management departments in an
attempt not only to reduce their exposure, but also to minimize insurance premiums. Global seismic
risk management is therefore one of the highest growth areas in industry.
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