Briefing of General Fraser, SOUTHCOM

Our team spent the day at Homestead AF base near Miami waiting for a flight to PaP.

At around 5 pm, Lieutenant Colonel Woolwine requested that we meet with General Fraser (Commander of SOUTHCOM) to brief him on our activities and respond to some of his questions about the seismic situation. He is mainly concerned about the safety of his troops. After meeting with General Fraser (and Colonel Sweeney), we promised to make a similar briefing to the staff in Haiti. The outline of the presentation is provided below.

One nice result of the briefing was that our priority was raised (from 3 to 1) and we will be flying to PaP at 8:30AM tomorrow morning using the General's plane. Thank you to General Fraser, as well as soldiers, airmen and officers of SOUTHCOM.

Here is an overview of the presentation.

USGS/EERI Team
• Marc Eberhard, University of Washington (NEES)
(team leader, structural engineer)

• Steven Baldridge, Baldridge and Associates (ATC)
(structural engineer, ATC instructor)

• Justin Marshall, Auburn University (EERI)
(structural engineer)

• Walter Mooney, (USGS)
(seismologist)

• Glenn Rix, Georgia Tech, (GEER)
(geotechnical engineer)

Mission Goals
1. Locate source of earthquakes (install seismometers, triangulate)
2. Assess and document damage (ports, buildings)
3. Support SOUTHCOM (briefings, after-action reports ….)
4. Establish ground truth for satellite images of damage
5. Support MINUSAH-UN Emergency Engineering Services (Filiatrault, group leader appointed by special envoy)
6. Inform USAID, State Department, USGS and engineering organizations (EERI, ATC, GEER)

Seismic Forecast
Magnitude Probability of One or More Earthquakes Exceeding this Magnitude from 1/21 to 2/20
M 7 3%
M 6 25%
M5 90%