HAZARD WARNINGS 

T HE HAZARD WARNING and Preparedness 

Program is the Survey's mechanism for assuring 

that the public and its officials get hazard information 

quickly and in a suitable form. Begun in 1976 in 

response to congressional legislation, this program 

coordinates, evaluates, and disseminates information 

and warnings of geologic-related hazards. 

Survey guidelines require that you document a 

geologic hazard upon discovering it and, if the danger 

is not imminent, contact your Branch or District 

Chief, who will forward the assessment throygh your 

Division to the Assistant Director for Engineering 

Geology. The Division Chief is generally responsible 

for getting expert review of the data and conclusions. 

The Assistant Director for Engineering Geology is 

generally responsible for getting approval from the 

Director to issue a formal Geologic Hazard Warning 

and to forward the notification to appropriate 

Federal, State, and local agencies and to the 

public through news media. 

As stated in the Federal Register of January 31, 

1984, a Geologic Hazard Warning by the Director of 

the Geological Survey is a formal statement about a 

specific geologic condition that poses a significant 

threat to the public and for which some timely 

response would be expected. The criteria for a 

Geologic Hazard Warning are as follows: 

A degree of risk is greater than normal for the 

area or a hazardous condition has recently 

developed or has only recently been recognized. 

A threat warrants consideration of a near-term 

public response. 

Information that fails to meet these criteria may also 

be sent by the Director to public officials, but such 

information would not constitute a Hazard Warning. 

If you identify a hazardous condition, you should 

document the hazard as precisely and completely as 

possible. A Geologic Hazard Warning containk the 

following elements: 

A description of the geoladc or other pertinent 

conditions that cause the concern. 

Factors that indicate such conditions- are 

hazardous. 

Location or area that may be affected. 

Estimated severity and time of occurrence, if 

available information justifies such estimates. 

A probabilistic statement, if possible, on the 

likelihood that a given event or events will occur 

within a specific time period. 

A description of continued Survey involvement 

and an estimate of what and when additional 

information might be available. 

If the hazard is a clear risk to life and property 

and there appears to be insufficient time to contact 

a responsible Survey official for scientific evaluation 

and policy review, you should make every reasonable 

effort to contact the affected parties and appropriate 

local public officials as soon and as directly as 

possible. 

Direct notification to public officials in such emergencies should be limited to a statement of the conditions observed; it should not be expressed as an 

official Geologic Hazard Warning. As soon as possible 

after communicating the information to local public 

officials, you should notify both your supervisor and 

the Assistant Director for Engineering Geology of 

(1) the hazard observations, (2) the actions you took, 

(3) the current status of the hazardous condition, and 

(4) the actions taken by public officials. Information 

concerning hazardous situations will be submitted, 

upon receipt of such information, to a scientific 

evaluation panel for review and appropriate action. 

For further information about the Hazard Warning 

and Preparedness Program, contact the Office of 

the Assistant Director for Engineering Geology, 

National Center, Reston, VA, 22092. 

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