Scientists can tell you that what happened in Haiti was expected. A Deadly Quake in a Seismic Hot Zone provides some of what is known about the Caribbean and seismic activity in the region.
The end result is that the earthquake was predictable, predictable, predicable! There should be no surprises about the quake--other than the timing. That part, the predicting, of earthquakes still needs to be figured out, and people are working on it.
We have similar earthquake hazards across the United States and the world. In industrialized nations there are better building codes, but also an inventory of older buildings built before modern seismic codes were established.
Portions of the United States could look like Haiti with Killer Buildings (unreinforced masonry, URM) collapsing on our citizens, just as we saw in Port-au-Prince.
I've written up an Op-ed on the topic that I'm shopping around. If it doesn't get picked up anywhere I'll share it here in these pages.
The bottom line is that the next big quake to happen in the United States should not be a surprise nor should the damages and deaths from unreinforced masonry buildings. It is all very predictable!
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The end result is that the earthquake was predictable, predictable, predicable! There should be no surprises about the quake--other than the timing. That part, the predicting, of earthquakes still needs to be figured out, and people are working on it.
We have similar earthquake hazards across the United States and the world. In industrialized nations there are better building codes, but also an inventory of older buildings built before modern seismic codes were established.
Portions of the United States could look like Haiti with Killer Buildings (unreinforced masonry, URM) collapsing on our citizens, just as we saw in Port-au-Prince.
I've written up an Op-ed on the topic that I'm shopping around. If it doesn't get picked up anywhere I'll share it here in these pages.
The bottom line is that the next big quake to happen in the United States should not be a surprise nor should the damages and deaths from unreinforced masonry buildings. It is all very predictable!
