Why Is Earthquake Preparedness So Important?
The news of the 7.1 earthquakes that hit Mexico last year and many others since then around the US have reminded Southern California citizens of just what danger they are in if a strong earthquake happens in California.
After years of debating, LA and some other cities in California now require buildings that are vulnerable to be retrofitted for earthquake preparedness. The city of LA has some of the strictest earthquake rules, and it requires that soft story, as well as concrete buildings, are retrofitted.
Other cities are also seeing the laws change too, including Santa Monca and San Francisco.
Soft Story Apartments
According to the LA Inspectors, they spent 3 years developing a large list of buildings that need to take earthquake preparedness measures through seismic strengthening and retrofitting.
Not only are these soft-story apartment buildings in danger of collapsing and causing injuries from the initial earthquake, but also from the after shocks.
Because these soft-story apartments usually have open garages underneath the first story, they can easily collapse. One very easy way to create earthquake preparedness in these buildings is to simply add a steel Moment frame to the garages. Seems simple! Yet, this simple fix could save hundreds of lives in a soft story apartment building.
Concrete Frame Buildings
According to the University Of California, there is research which says that 75 out of the 1500 buildings that are concrete frames could collapse because of an earthquake. This could result in the injuries or deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
Concrete (Non-Ductile) buildings need to be examined more closely and undergo extensive testing and engineering analyisis for an earthquake Retrofit program.
There are a few websites you can check out to see if you live near or on a fault – or if your home is listed as one of the buildings that need seismic strengthening.
Soft Story Buildings That Are At Risk
*Note: This list is from 2016 and does NOT update after a building has been retrofitted for earthquake preparedness. For a more updated list check out.
Older Concrete Buildings in LA That Are At Risk
Earthquake Study List For Santa Monica
If you think you need to have your building looked at to prevent collapsing, contact Saunders Seismic today or by calling 949-646-0034 in Southern California, 408-267-3876 in Northern California, and 206-521-3774 in Washington or Oregon.