Recovering from the ShakeOut Earthquake

Recovery from an earthquake like the M7.8 ShakeOut Scenario will be a major endeavor taking many years to complete. Hundreds of Southern California municipalities will be affected; most lack recovery plans or previous disaster experience. To support recovery planning this paper 1) extends the regional ShakeOut Scenario analysis into the recovery period using a recovery model, 2) localizes analyses to identify longer‐term impacts and issues in two communities, and 3) considers the regional context of local recovery. Key community insights about preparing for post‐disaster recovery include the need to: geographically diversify city procurement; set earthquake mitigation priorities for critical infrastructure (e.g., airport), plan to replace mobile homes with earthquake safety measures, consider post‐earthquake redevelopment opportunities ahead of time, and develop post‐disaster recovery management and governance structures. This work also showed that communities with minor damages are still sensitive to regional infrastructure damages and their potential long‐term impacts on community recovery. This highlights the importance of community and infrastructure resilience strategies as well.