HAZUS-MH Estimated Annualized Earthquake Losses for the United States (FEMA 366)
Recent earthquakes around the world show a pattern of steadily increasing damages and losses that are due primarily to two factors: 1) significant growth in earthquake-prone urban areas and 2) vulnerability of the older building stock, including buildings constructed within the past 20 years. This publication, FEMA 366: HAZUS-MH Estimated Annualized Earthquake Losses for the United States highlights the impacts of both high risk and high exposure on losses caused by earthquakes. It is based on loss estimates generated by HAZUS-MH. The HAZUS tool provides a method for quantifying future earthquake losses. The objective of this study is to assess levels of seismic risk in the United States using HAZUS-MH and nationwide data. The analysis computes two inter-related metrics to characterize earthquake risk: Annualized Earthquake Loss (AEL) and the Annualized Earthquake Loss Ratio (AELR).
