ATC Board Director Tom Smith documents tornado damage in Georgia and Alabama

Between May 7 and 9, 2011, ATC Board Director Tom Smith visited the tornado stricken areas of Georgia and Alabama as a member of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment team. He has shared the following damage photos:

Photo showing damage to a fairly new school building in Alabama. The school had 3 separate wings and a central area. This shot is looking at a wing that collapsed (part of the central area is in the background -- it too collapsed). To the left is one of the wings that did not appear to have structural damage. However, a section of the corridor wall partially collapsed. Photo courtesy of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team.

Photo showing furniture store with broken windows, shingle loss, and a nearly collapsed brick veneer in Alabama. Photo courtesy of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team.

Photo showing hardware store with collapsed CMU veneer and metal wall panels in Alabama. The pre-engineered frame and purlins did not appear to have structural damage. Photo courtesy of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team.

Photo showing damaged military recruitment center in Alabama. The wing with the brick veneer lost most of the roof deck. The other wing had glazing damage, but no apparent structural damage. Photo courtesy of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team.

Photo showing a damaged wing a very large middle school in Georgia. This wing lost most of its roof deck. One gym lost some deck panels, but a second gym had no apparent structural damage. Some other wings had glazing damage and/or some roof covering or deck damage, while other wings had no apparent damage. Photo courtesy of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team.

5/2011

Welcome to the ATC Team!

Michael Valley

As a former Principal at Magnusson Klemencic Associates in Seattle, Mike Valley comes to ATC with more than 30 years of structural engineering experience in new design, evaluation and retrofit of existing buildings, applied research, and codes and standards development. Mike’s design experience includes the landmark Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, and his research and development experience includes the FEMA 356 Prestandard and Commentary for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings, FEMA P-2012 Assessing Seismic Performance of Buildings with Configuration Irregularities (ATC-123 Project), and NIST GCR 10-917-9 Applicability of Nonlinear Multiple-Degree-of-Freedom Modeling for Design (ATC-76-6 Project).

Mike also has extensive experience as an ATC consultant serving as a reviewer, a technical contributor, and Project Director on multiple ATC projects. We look forward to how Mike’s unique experiences as a successful team member will contribute to ATC projects in the future.

Michael Mahoney

Retired from federal service as a Senior Geophysicist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mike Mahoney comes to ATC with more than 30 years of experience in hazard mitigation program management and policy development, post-disaster response and recovery, and problem-focused research and development in support of FEMA’s efforts under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). He has led FEMA’s earthquake-related work with the International Code Council and has been involved with the development of national model codes and standards since 1984.

In his career at FEMA, Mike has led the development of countless major FEMA publications, including: FEMA 350 Recommended Seismic Design Criteria for New Steel Moment-Frame Buildings and its series of companion reports (ATC-41 Project series), FEMA P-58 Seismic Performance Assessment of Buildings, Methodology and Implementation (ATC-58 Project series), FEMA P-695 Quantification of Building Seismic Performance Factors (ATC-63 Project), FEMA P-2018 Seismic Evaluation of Older Concrete Buildings for Collapse Potential (ATC-78 Project), and FEMA P-2090/NIST SP-1254 Recommended Options for Improving the Built Environment for Post-Earthquake Reoccupancy and Functional Recovery Time (ATC-137 Project). With Mike’s extensive knowledge of federal government programs, and past collaboration with state and local agencies, hazard mitigation partners, and code development organizations, we look forward to how his unique experiences will help serve ATC’s client needs and objectives in the future.