Naturally we cannot prevent earthquakes from happening, but is it a case of deja vu? I mean the seemingly unnecessary death and destruction in L'Aquila, Italy, due to the earthquake on about 6 April 2009.
Italy ranks with some other countries such as New Zealand, Japan and the US in having the most highly developed and advanced seismic design abilities, and yet the San Salvatore public hospital which was built in 2000, was able to collapse along with historic churches and stone houses. Did other modern buildings suffer from similar damage? How could this happen?
Italy is so much involved in advanced engineering research and seismic design that it is the base of the new Global Earthquake Model (GEM). Take a look at these websites.
http://www.globalquakemodel.org/
http://www.globalquakemodel.org/RossSteinsVisionSpeech.html
The answer to the vexing question of how this could happen may be amongst the reports of relative chaos in the way building controls are administered in Italy. As one commentator said,
"In a country littered with illegal buildings and construction eyesores, experts blamed the use of low-quality cement and inadequate supporting iron rods, saying tens of thousands of palaces, schools and hospitals were at risk".
Elsewhere in this blog I have said that we must realise that the investment in enforcing seismic codes on a nation-wide basis and strengthening unsafe structures in risk areas is a smaller price to pay than the pain and suffering, the economics of lost livelihoods, bankrupt businesses and the fear and guilt.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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