Abstract: After a damaging earthquake occurs,a rapid assessment of the deaths,injuries and losses due to the earthquake is neccessary.This paper suggests that the seismic damage assessment can be conducted in four steps,thus the accuracy of results will be in four levels accordingly.The step one and step two are assessment without survey in situ,the results are rough,but less time is needed.Step three and step four are assessment according to survey in situ,results are accurate and can be used as reference for rescue action but more time is needed.In this way,the damage assessment can satisfy the information demand of government,news medium and the public gradually.