Page 116 - Building Codes News Today

Haitian earthquake. it released about 500 times more energy. 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...

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 northridge earthquake in the los angeles area. they both had ab...

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 north ridge earthquake in the los angeles area, they both had...

Earthquake. it released about 500 times more energy. 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 d...

Or 9. each causes shaking over the earth but there is no understanding about the relationship between a moderate earthquake in japan and something thousands of miles away. >> wolf, you had a question as well. >> i guess the question a lot of americans are asking -- what about the continental united states or alaska and hawaii for that matter? are we due for this kind of earthquake? >> we have a map to illustrate that. the seismic hazard for the united states. >> this shows the hazard zones for t...

Elements of information. for example, which areas are suitable for rebuilding, which are not. many areas are high risk. we do not anticipate rebuilding in areas that are located in this very high risk location. so we would need to work with the government in defining what are the uses of the land and in which areas we can rebuild, what are going to be the applicable building codes in haiti for the reconstruction. and then to solve the issue of land tenure for the families. >> to be sure it is th...

To 50 other people are somewhere still inside that building, possibly inside the stairwell. they say they have heard no signs of life for the last 24 hours, but they say that theyre not ruling out that some people may still be alive inside this building. there are many survivable spaces. now, of course, upper most in peoples minds, haiti. this earthquake here in chile was much bigger than haiti, so why hasnt the death toll been higher? i put that to firefighters here in concepcion. his team only...

Went in a kind of a wave he described. he said here its much more straight forward shaking. he says that that tends not to damage buildings so much, but he points it all to the strenuous building codes that have been put in place. that didnt work for this 15-story building. this is a new building, in fact, and it simply fell on its side. >> unbelievable. karl penhaul for us in chile, thank you. the ground continues to shake in chile making it dangerous for rescue workers. also a huge challenge...

Dramatically smaller. over 700 so far in chile, over 200,000 people in haiti, one reason, experts say the haiti quake did more damage because it was much closer to the earths surface. chile also has better building codes and construction. it wont be high noon, but there will be a showdown in texas. a governor is -- who will within the texas-style primary thats taking place tomorrow? ♪

Building codes and emergency crews trained for exactly this kind of catastrophe. the buildings there are built to ride out earthquakes with steel skeletons designed to sway with seismic waves rather than resist them. also, analysts say chile has more world renounced seismologists and earthquake engineers per capita than anywhere else in the world. now, let me bring your attention to the following graphic, which is going to show you the difference in terms of intensity. this is what the u.s. geol...