News | HAZUS User of the Year

In this section

HAZUS User of the Year

A way for FEMA to recognize four individuals a year, dedicated to furthering the success of HAZUS. Nominate a HAZUS user, developer, trainer or anyone who has added to the value of HAZUS and emergency management.

As a way of recognizing those individuals who are dedicated to furthering the success of HAZUS, FEMA has created the HAZUS User of the Year designation to help show appreciation to those who have contributed to the success of the program. The success of HAZUS is determined by awareness and usage - the more that communities are aware of its capabilities and utilize the program, the more lives can be saved, economic losses are decreased, preparedness increases, and faster response and recovery times are witnessed in impacted communities.

Each quarter, FEMA will spotlight the contributions of a HAZUS user who has provided exceptional services to the expansion of the HAZUS program. This individual may be a user, a developer, a trainer or anyone who has been involved in adding value to HAZUS. For example, you may nominate someone that has recently started using HAZUS for innovative projects, has created or participated in a HAZUS User Group (HUG), or that has prepared or taught a new HAZUS course.

Philip McCormick, City of Riverside, CA

Congratulations to Philip McCormick, the 3rd Quarter 2010 HAZUS User of the Year. Mr. McCormick is the Emergency Operations Coordinator for the City of Riverside, CA. He is responsible for coordinating city recovery efforts following major emergencies; for maintaining the city emergency resource database, city hazard and risk management mapping system, emergency operations center computer and communications systems; and serves as a liaison to the department of defense, local school districts, and local colleges and universities.

Mr. McCormick’s experience with HAZUS began in 1998; he was one of the program’s original users. He has focused his work on updating HAZUS data sets for improved earthquake analysis for the City of Riverside. He has updated all soil and liquefaction data for improved earthquake analysis. The data sets that he has updated include seventy percent of commercial buildings in the city, the location of hazardous material sites, all un-reinforced masonry buildings, and electrical poles and electrical vaults. In addition he has updated the data sets for medical facilities, religious facilities, all schools and day care providers, veterinary clinics, and animal care centers. All of these data sets have been
sent to the City GIS Department with earthquake scenario maps for response planning.

Mr. McCormick also completed a detailed hazard and risk management mapping project consistent with national standards which was used as a model by FEMA during the November 2008 Golden Guardian earthquake exercise. The HAZUS research and mapping completed for the November 2008 California state-wide Earthquake Exercise is considered best-practice and serves as the base modeling for all risk and consequence modeling for the City of Riverside. A follow up project to this is the development of scenario based playbooks currently under development using U.S. Geological Survey and Caltech earthquake models on the three major earthquake fault systems surrounding the City of Riverside. These scenario based playbooks will enable City emergency management staff and incident commanders to rapidly call up anticipated casualty and damage data based upon a suite of modeled scenarios using various epicenter and hypocenter locations. This important project will seek to shorten the reaction time to major earthquakes and will further aid in the deployment of critical emergency resources following a major earthquake.

Mr. McCormick is recognized as one of the leading experts in California in using HAZUS and is an active member of the Southern California HAZUS User Group. He is known among his peers for consistently giving 110% effort and for striving for nothing less than perfection in every task or project he is charged with. It is with great pleasure that FEMA awards Mr. McCormick with the HAZS User of the Year award.