Page 113 - Building Codes News Today

Out. it reminds me of what happened in thailand. the numbers were growing and the death toll getting larger than anyone would think and the same thing is happening here. although this country is so advanced, it did not dough, the earthquake the damage you would expect. if it hit an american city we would see a lot more damage than we see here. it is the tsunami. and, also, about the nuclear reactor. >>clayton: thank you, adam. he is in tokyo. and as adam mentioned we are looking at images coming...

We taking advantage of new technology so that over the next five to ten years we are prepared as possible. there are lots of building codes in place so that any given area, we know about the large earthqua earthquakes. >> how about their near backy d backyard. >> it will be in all likelihood less than a magnitude eight but certainly not near a magnitude nine. >> to deal with a magnitude modern buildings subjected to

Its a different scale all together. >> the scale rises exponentially, of course. were talking about 7, 7.5, thats something significant. when you go from 7 to an 8, youre not talking about a 5%, 10%, tenfold increase. when you get from a 7 to almost a 9, almost a 1,000 time increase as far as shaking is concerned, so, yes, this is one of the most -- the fifth largest earthquake in recorded history. the largest earthquake folks in japan have seen in recorded history for them. the previous one goi...

Usgs, talking about how japan, some of the most stringent building codes, when it comes to erecting their buildings, they know theyre in an earthquake-prone area so they build accordingly. but one of his biggest concerns will be the gas lines, the ruptures from underneath the ground. not necessarily -- its part of the infrastructure. but might not be part of the building itself. >> we saw a little bit of that in the earlier video that we were showing, just that massive explosion of some of those...

9.1 sumatra earthquake that struck the day after christmas. this is slightly larger than the 8.8 we had off of chile last february. again, significant damage. but as with japan, the chile was a country that had significant building codes. if theres a country that can try to take this sort of a punch, it is japan. but the relentlessness of both the event and as you pointed out the tsunami is hard to deal with. >> i want to ask you about the tsunami. because we have these warnings. the sea level r...

Its the type of engineering thats been in japan in years that has the strictest building codes out there. >> making buildings tsunami proof is a different matter. earthquake engineering is one thing, tsunamis operate differently. joining us to discuss disaster architecture, herman fritz, associate producer of civil engineering at georgia tech and phillip lou, professor of civil and environmental engineering at cornell. i understand, herman, you and professor lou have worked together. you worked ...

Images there from the massive earthquake. we saw one house kind of pancaked on itself, but that is a rare scene in japan, because the building codes are strict over there, and when you see the video from the earthquake when it struck and buildings swaying side to side, that is what they are supposed to do. >> they are built that way. >> yes. >> and in the 1995 earthquake in kobe was damaging, the buildings since 1991 when they came in with the strict standards have done really well. >> so that i...

Japan would be where it should happen. >> florida, for instance, after getting hit by hurricane andrew, all the building codes were changed. the next hurricanes that came through didnt cause the destruction and japan has been preparing for decades. >> to us, it ought to be something of a warning, our own homeland security domestic preparations for disasters, man-made and natural are woefully inadequate in this country. it ought to be something of a wakeup call, not only for earthquakes but much ...

Might be there. and a floating fire of sorts on the left-hand side. this is all the experience that we are seeing here, the sense of magnitude and context. lets get to arata, nbcs producer there in japan. arata, when we were last speaking, about 15 minutes ago, we were discussing the loss of life. that is, of course, a concern. and the numbers that youre hearing right now are preliminary. you were saying there were two confirmed deaths, as well as another possible death in another area. these nu...

Saw in places like haiti where the building codes are atrocious. >> well, they were not aware that there was the potential for a magnitude 7 earthquake so close to christchurch or a 6.3 aftershock for that matter. most of the strong earthquake activity tends to be centered farther away from christchurch. in any area of the world, whether its here in the united states or whether its in new zealand or japan or anywhere you have a range of different aged buildings, modern buildings tend to be built...