On Feb 26, 2011, at 6:12 PM, Bob Sullivan wrote: > And you may need better earthquake resistant construction.
We do have excellent earthquake resistant construction, our country has some of the best seismic engineering in the world. Unfortunately it's a fairly modern development, more modern than many of the buildings in our central business district. To be honest I've thought for a long time (years) that those old masonry buildings should either be greatly reinforced or torn down, for precisely this reason. > All the parapets, porches, and facades falling to the street are not > acceptable. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. As far as I know there were few total collapses which I think is largely due to rows of buildings holding each other steady. If more buildings had collapsed inwards then deaths would be well in the thousands so I'm thankful that the damage was limited. I just got curious and had a look at where I was on Google Street View. Here's a screen shot... http://www.multi.net.nz/feb-22-aftershock/street-view.jpg That is the view looking south down Manchester St and you can see the intersection of Cashel St. I was on the right-hand footpath, about level with the front of that parked car. Look at the facade above, it's an old brick building. How the hell that didn't collapse I don't know but I wouldn't be here if it had. I ran halfway across the road after making sure it was safe to do so, but was that far enough? Because I was standing up I didn't realise the quake was as big as it was until I saw stuff falling down a block away. I ended up in the middle of that intersection keeping a damn good eye on the surrounding buildings. This is why I'm slightly uncomfortable about thinking back because I inevitably ask "what if". And I don't need to distract myself with those thoughts. BTW if you were to turn right at that intersection, the Hotel Grand Chancellor is right next door to the white building I was under. So I'm glad that also remained standing. > I'm still hoping for a miracle at the CTV building. We all are, but I think we know deep down that it's unlikely. I feel for the Japanese rescue team who are combing through the wreckage for their countrymen/women. > How can a modern 6 story building fail so completely?!! I don't know, we're all asking that same question. There must have been some hidden damage after September, or perhaps the foundations were undermined by liquefaction. Once we've made it through the terrible tragedy I am sure there will be investigations. Given the scale of damage I am just thankful the death toll isn't an order of magnitude higher. Cheers, Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
