FEMA seal before FEMA was merged into the Department of Homeland Security
FEMA PUBLICATIONS
The following items were re-formatted and updated for the web by Randolph Langenbach while an employee of FEMA Headquarters, but they were never published by FEMA on the web following administration and personnel changes. Thus they are published here as a public service. As products of the Federal Government, they are in the public domain.
Flood Handbook
Earthquake Handbook
FEMA Hazard Mitigation Handbooks for Public Facilities, Originally produced and published in print form by FEMA Region X, two volumes, The Flood Mitigation Handbook and The Earthquake Mitigation Handbook are published here. The Earthquake Mitigation Handbook is the product of a significant updating and expansion of the original print version.
As a service to those in India, Turkey, Haiti, and other countries who have recently experienced earthquakes causing extensive damage to Masonry and Concrete buildings, these publications published by the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are reproduced here, or links to other sites on which they reside are placed here. The following is a selection of publications that at the time this page was created, had not been electronically published by FEMA.
To search those publications that FEMA has to date placed on its own website, click on the two links below
LIST OF FEMA PUBLICATIONS ON THE SEISMIC SAFETY OF BUILDINGS, including ordering information: Sources of information for design professionals and other decision makers in earthquake hazard mitigation. Off-site link to FEMA website page. Click on "Preparation and Prevention" to get to earthquake technical documents that FEMA has posted online.
LIST OF NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE HAZARDS REDUCTION PROGRAM (NEHRP) PUBLICATIONS, with links to downloadable PDF copies of many of these technical publications. This link is to those publications designed for "Building Professionals and Engineers," but the box on the right gives access to all other categories.
The following items are available directly off of the Internet in PDF format for immediate download.
FEMA 306, 307, 308: EVALUATION OF EARTHQUAKE DAMAGED CONCRETE AND MASONRY WALL BUILDINGS. This is an on-site link where you can download these documents in their entirety. These volumes are the product of a multiyear, multi-million dollar research project to better improve the post disaster evaluation and repair of buildings where cracks and loss of capacity have been difficult to evaluate in terms of future risk.
FEMA 274: Commentary on the NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings. This is an off-site link where you can download this document in its entirety (courtesy of Degenkolb Engineers).
FEMA
310:
Handbook for the Seismic
Evaluation of Buildings. This
is an off-site link where you can
download this document in its
entirety (courtesy of Degenkolb
Engineers).
FEMA 356: Report on
the Prestandard and Commentary for
the Seismic Rehabilitation of
Buildings. This is
an off-site link where you can
download this document in its
entirety (courtesy of Degenkolb
Engineers).
FEMA 357: Global
Topics Report on the Prestandard
and Commentary for the Seismic
Rehabilitation of Buildings.
This is an off-site link where you
can download this document in its
entirety (courtesy of Degenkolb
Engineers). This report
documents technical changes to the
chapters of FEMA 273- that were
incorporated in the conversion of
the document into a prestandard.
The Prestandard is one step in the
process to convert FEMA 273 into
an American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) approved national
consensus standard.