The City of St. Louis, MO, named QuakeSmart Community by Nonprofit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Inc. (FLASH)

Gateway City becomes first in the nation to earn an honorary earthquake resilience designation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the nonprofit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) named St. Louis, Missouri, as the first city in the United States to receive an honorary QuakeSmart Community Designation. The designation is part of FEMA's QuakeSmart education, awareness, and outreach program that guides businesses and organizations to take action to protect employees and customers from earthquake injury, prevent or reduce damage to buildings, and help ensure business continuity.

The FLASH Partnership chose the city for the designation based on high-performing scores on the ISO Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) and Public Protection Classification (PPC®) as well as excellence in comprehensive business training, community outreach, integrated planning with the school system, establishment as a NOAA StormReady^® Community, and overall leadership engagement.

"It is an honor to receive this designation, the first of its kind. It is a testimony to the work of our public safety agencies here in St. Louis in preparing our community and working to mitigate potential damages by future earthquakes here in St. Louis," said Commissioner of Emergency Management Sarah Russell.

"The City of St. Louis has demonstrated a profound commitment to preserving the safety and serving the needs of the most earthquake-exposed communities in the nation," said FLASH President and CEO Leslie Chapman-Henderson. "On behalf of our Board of Directors and more than 100 partners, we are proud to recognize St. Louis' leadership for their dedication to advancing earthquake resilience."

The City of St. Louis is located within the New Madrid Seismic Zone, classified by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as high risk, facing a 40% chance of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake within the next 50 years.

For more information on becoming a QuakeSmart Community, email [email protected] and visit https://flash.org/readybusiness.

About FLASH
The nonprofit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) is the country's leading consumer advocate for strengthening homes and safeguarding families from disasters. The FLASH partnership includes more than 100 innovative and diverse organizations that share a vision of making America a more disaster-resilient nation, including FEMA, Florida Division of Emergency Management, Huber Engineered Woods, International Code Council, ISO - Verisk Analytics, MyRadar, National Weather Service, Renew Financial, Simpson Strong-Tie, State Farm, and USAA. In 2008, FLASH and Disney opened the interactive weather experience StormStruck: A Tale of Two Homes in Lake Buena Vista, FL. FLASH's signature program No Code. No Confidence. - Inspect2Protect.org provides consumers with a one-of-a-kind building code transparency tool to easily identify their community's building code. Learn more about FLASH and access free consumer resources by visiting www.flash.org and www.Inspect2Protect.org, calling toll-free (877) 221- SAFE (7233), following @federalalliance on Twitter, and Facebook.com/federalalliance.

SOURCE Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH)