Westernmost Nepal, is threatened by a major earthquake that most of its buildings, including most schools, have not been designed or built to withstand. This places schoolchildren at great risk, and common school construction practices need to be made safer.

A scenario can tell a story of a probable-but-hypothetical disaster. By showing specific consequences–to people, buildings, infrastructure, and land–this tool can make complex data understandable for decision-makers, most of whom are not specialists in technical fields.

Two Kathmandu hospitals had been assessed for disaster preparedness just before the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha earthquake. Pre- and post-earthquake findings are compared.

Scenarios of a plausible earthquake quantify impacts, including more than 50% of schools damaged, and guide communities to reduce extreme risk before a disaster.

Technical review and field testing of a World Health Organization (WHO) tool to screen hospitals’ vulnerabilities to multiple hazards as well as their level of emergency and disaster preparedness.

Mansons trained hands-on to build bearing walls and reinforced concrete frames, applying Nepal’s building code that addresses reinforcement in simpler buildings.

Prioritized short and long-term changes to improve post-disaster function of hospitals that provide critical medical services for a large number of people.

Technical information about likely lethality of earthquakes in 21 cities-- including vulnerable aspects of the built environment, schools and hospitals--to help the cities prioritize risk mitigation efforts.

One objective was to quantify and plan how to mitigate the high vulnerability of public schools. This led to hands-on training and seismic retrofit of many schools.