California has failed to identify thousands of buildings vulnerable to quakes

[marmar]

By Rong-Gong Lin II and Sam Allen, Los Angeles Times
March 17, 2011


California has failed to identify and retrofit thousands of brittle concrete buildings despite years of warnings from scientists that the structures are highly vulnerable to collapse during a major earthquake.

Officials have known as far back as the 1971 Sylmar quake that such buildings can collapse, but efforts to address those weaknesses have stalled because of the high cost of retrofitting the buildings.

Experts estimate that between 25,000 to 30,000 concrete buildings were erected before building codes were strengthened in the mid-1970s, including some heavy clusters in downtown Los Angeles and along Wilshire and Hollywood boulevards.

The devastating earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand have focused more attention on the vulnerability of such buildings. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-quake-buildings-20110317,0,5272824.story

[Wilms]

1. And many of the buildings built before the Northridge quake are probably pretty stressed out.

Let's talk about something else. K?

[marmar]

2. You can talk about whatever you please, without playing thread parent.

nt

[Wilms]

3. marmar, I was being sarcastic. n/t

[marmar]

4. Oops, I'm sorry. ...... It's hard to tell sometimes.

Usually my sarc-o-meter is pretty good. Je suis desolee.

[Wilms]

5. Well, it's not like I signaled a lane change.

:blush:

[Chris_Texas]

6. Tax cuts are the solution!!! HAHAHA!! Tax cuts are always the solution HAHAH!!!!

sorry. went temporarily insane.