Page 115 - Building Codes News Today

How big of a concern is that? >> thats a big concern not just in california but worldwide. engineers, of course, know a lot more about earthquakes and the way to build strong buildings. any building thats constructed prior to the imposition of building codes can be very weak. thats a major concern. >> lets move up to coast to seattle. how is seattle prepared and whats the likelihood of something there? >> the last major earthquake along the coast of washington and oregon occurred around 1700. th...

Thousand so far. why is that? geography, for one thing. the port-au-prince quake was in shallow earth 15 miles from the city. the chile quake was 30 miles off the coast. deep under water. history is another factor. no one alive remembers the serious of earthquakes that hit haiti in the 1700s. chiles experience is much more recent. more than 28 quakes in the 20th century. including the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in 1960. all of which has led chile to put in and adhere to strict buildi...

Way to build strong buildings. any building thats constructed prior to the imposition of building codes can be very weak. >> lets move up to coast to seattle. how is seattle prepared and whats the likelihood of something there? >> the last major earthquake along the coast of washington occurred around 1700. that was very large. much like the earthquake that occurred in chile. it produced a tsunami. in recent years seattle has become more prepared for an event of that nature. >> this red line, th...

500,000 buildings are damaged. probably half of those irreparably. were looking at a kind of earthquake resistance that enables people to walk out of these damaged structures. >> reporter: in the same way chiles building codes were a success, haiti was a dismal and deadly failure. in port-au-prince we surveyed the damage with structural engineer who specializes in earthquakes. >> you see a column. you see top of column. you see rebar. doesnt have enough group. just does not have enough rebar. th...

Number one on the danger list, los angeles, california. last so-called big one hit the city in 1857. seismologists say gets one every 150 years so it is due. with us now is arthur lamb, associate director for seismology at columbia university. lets start in los angeles. how prepared is that city? >> well, los angeles is one of the best-prepared cities in the world, actually. the earthquake probabilities, the occurrence is well known. there are very, very strict building codes and the emergency r...

Associate director for seismology at columbia university. lets start in los angeles. how prepared is that city? >> well, los angeles is one of the best-prepared cities in the world, actually. the earthquake probabilities, the occurrence is well known. there are very, very strict building codes and the emergency responders are very well trained. >> the way you determine, though, you cant say, well the next five years -- you guys do it in 30-year timeframes. why is that in. >> 30 years is sort of ...

So on, that have been built prior to the implementation of these building codes and these buildings could be particularly at risk. >> every year civil engineers come out and talk about how our infrastructure is failing in this country. you talked about building codes, infrastructure, is there a connection there? should we be concerned about the state of ur bridges and tunnels in this country when it comes to earthquakes? >> well, i believe we should take a look at our infrastructure because we s...

>> reporter: in the same way chiles building codes were a success, haiti was a dismal and deadly failure. in port-au-prince we surveyed the wreckage with a structural engineer who specializes in earthquakes. >> you see a column. you see top of column. you see rebar. does not have enough grip. just does not have enough rebar. thats why it collapsed like that. its really brutal. >> reporter: chile is one of the wealthiest and most transparent countries in south america. haiti is the poorest and am...

Earthquake possibilities here in california, but the tsunami possibility looks real, too, doesnt it? >> it is. and theres been a lot of damage over the years in california from tsunamis, especially in our ports, the ports of los angeles and long beach suffered significant damage in both 1960 and 1964. so its a real risk. its not as common as our earthquakes but its big. >> and what we think of as our big earthquakes, 1989 here up in northern california, san francisco, 1994 was it -- yeah, the no...

But the most important difference is that chile was better prepared with better building codes. earthquakes dont kill people -- buildings do. there was much more shaking, much more vibration through chile but their buildings were better able to with stand it. >> and the tsunami that was caused by this earthquake, it did cause pretty severe damage in some locations, but it wasnt anything like the tsunami that we saw in indonesia in 2004. what determines the energy of that tsunami? >> well, even t...