Briefing on February 28, 2001 M6.8 Seattle, Washington Earthquake.

Business Editors

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2001

EQE International, Inc. will hold briefings in our Seattle, Washington and Oakland, California offices this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. to provide our findings from the Seattle Earthquake. The Seattle briefing will be for the Seattle Area and National media. The Oakland briefing will be only for the San Francisco area media.

EQE has fielded a team of 40 local earthquake, structural and civil engineers and other scientists from our Seattle and California offices to investigate the damages, and to support our numerous clients in the affected areas. They will explain the damage, in all its aspects, show photographs and various maps, and discuss the implications. Other possible future scenarios, such as a large quake on the Seattle Fault, will be presented.

The Seattle briefing will be held in our office located at 1411 4th Avenue Building, Suite 500. The briefing in Oakland will be held in our office located at 1111 Broadway, 10th Floor.

EQE International (WWW.EQE.COM), a member of the ABS Group of Companies, is the world's largest earthquake and risk engineering company and leading provider of earthquake engineering and catastrophe management consulting services and catastrophe modeling software. EQE International and EQECAT have over 700 employees in 30 offices worldwide.