Page 112 - Building Codes News Today

There are some things that we just cant fight. >> yeah, theres only so much you can do in a case like this. i mean, japanese have about the best building codes in the world, and theyre very much focused on the earthquake safety. they drill year round. but if youre that close to an earthquake of that magnitude, no construction is able to withstand it. and as you saw from the video footage, theres no building on earth of a smaller size that can handle a wave the size of tsunamis, so -- >> exactly....

Quake. >> geraldo: the japanese have extremely strict building codes. they are prepared. you heard the warning over the public address system telling people that a tsunami was coming to get to higher ground and they actually went. can you imagine if that happened here? people would think it was a crank, you know, i dont even know if we have public address systems in most neighborhoods any more. i dont think we do any more. stand by. we will have more and discuss the scary possibility of the chin...

Quake. >> geraldo: the japanese have extremely strict building codes. they are prepared. you heard the warning over the public address system telling people that a tsunami was coming to get to higher ground and they actually went. can you imagine if that happened here? people would think it was a crank, you know, i dont even know if we have public address systems in most neighborhoods any more. i dont think we do any more. stand by. we will have more and discuss the scary possibility of the chin...

Disaster preparedness. how much do you think in this case their preparation helped them with the earthquake and the tsunami that followed? >> well, it sounds from what i read and heard that its been very effective as much as they could have been. most of the cities outside of the immediately affected region like sendai did pretty well as you heard from your coverage from tokyo, and you are used to those almost all the time. there isnt much can you do to prepare against the sides of the earthquak...

Absorbers to withstand severe shaking. its helped limit the damage. last year our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta checked out why japan has such strict building codes. >> reporter: so would you even know what to do if you found yourself in the middle of that? what were experiencing is a 6.9 magnitude earthquake. what theyll tell you is go into the corner of the room. stay away from glass as much as possible. also cover your head and face and get under the table if you have to, somet...

Mellow. there were early today after shocks and a large one was yesterday. so, they have been talking about that, but the good news is tokyo did not suffer much earthquake damage. the earthquake did little to tokyo other than knock out the power. the tsunami and nuclear situation are the two thens everyone is worried about. the building codes are stringent because of the constant threat of earthquake it is amazing to see no cracks. i went to haiti for a smaller earthquake and the place was barel...

>>reporter: i came from goya, 200 miles away on a bullet train so the high-speed trains in japan are working after being stopped yesterday. coming into tokyo was amazing. it looks like a normal city. i dont see any damage and i drove around for an hour before coming here. and people are going about their business. they are resilient people, the japanese. they know there are earthquakes but the focus now is further north around sendai and along the coastline some areas have not been reached becau...

There are buildings next to buildings that are down that survived. >> reporter: even with building codes that focus on seismic safety, many structures are still no match for violent quakes. among the people going on the team are water experts because it kicked up so many waves and flooding. >> george, how ready is california for any real tsunami hitting here? >> reporter: well, thats a good question, lawrence. it is kind of a hodge popping, varies from county to county. crescent city where they ...

Dead, sever lifelines and cause billions of dollars in damage. and as the las angeles county search and rescue team learned in new zealand, an earthquake doesnt have to be the big one to be deadly. a magnitude 6.3 was close to the surface, the ground shaking violent. >> buildings resemble las angeles, california. right next to buildings that are down that survived the earthquake. >> a warning for californians, even with building codes that focus on seismic safety, many structures are still no ma...

Prepared for natural disasters. specifically, earthquakes and tsunamis. >>reporter: well, they have annual drills here. i lived in japan a decade ago and there was always that concern and people understood the problem. and i have been here when there have been tremors and i have been holding on to things and people are still walking down street not too worried. but in tokyo they worry about the big one. there was a major earthquake here in 1923 which flattened tokyo. they have improved dramatica...