7.8 Earthquake strikes China

I've never worked in WA state so I can't comment that much about them but from personal experience working on architecture projects in CA I can tell you they are very strict on enforcing building codes through plan inspections of submitted plans to get building permits, inspections during construction and prior to opening of projects. There is always the temptation to take shortcuts but that is a matter of how much the inspectors enforce the codes and CA they generally seem to be vigilant about that.

As for having government step in to protect against once in a lifetime disaster the function of building codes isn't to prevent everything possible and there is no way you can make an absolutely earthquake proof building, fire proof or hurricane proof. It is a matter of balancing out reasonably predicted risk versus costs and practicality of building. In a place like CA where there is a known earthquake risk it makes sense to address that while everywhere there is a risk of fire so fire is always considered in codes.

One interesting debate is how much should codes take into account the danger of terrorists attacks since they are far rarer than any other disaster. From my knowledge it seems like codes haven't been adjusted for terrorist attacks but many clients on their own have sought to put in anti terrorists measures into prominent buildings, like barriers to prevent truck bombs from driving up to the building, and the US government has written into their own guidelines for government buildings preventive measures.

One last note on building codes while I'm rambling here. Building codes to address disasters aren't generally written to ensure the overall survival of the building but that it can withstand the initial disaster long enough to evacuate people from it. For example fire codes are written in hour ratings to determine how long something can withstand a fire intime to evacuate. So an earthquake code wouldn't necessarily mean a building that can survive the earthquake unscathed just that it would hold up long enough to get people out of it.

 

More reports of strong aftershocks and damage to dams. Its possible that this disaster still might get worse. In positive news more rescue teams including expert foreign teams are getting to the scene.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24642170

[rquoter]Aftershocks spark landslides at quake epicenter
Anger over collapsed schools grows as China's official death toll hits 21,500

BEICHUAN, China - A strong aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week's powerful earthquake Friday, burying vehicles and again cutting off ravaged areas of central China.

Elsewhere, rescuers were still finding survivors after being buried in rubble for 96 hours, while public anger grew over the hundreds of children crushed to death in schools that collapsed in Monday's magnitude 7.9 temblor. More than four days since the disaster, the first foreign rescue workers were allowed to the scene.

An aftershock rattled parts of central Sichuan province Friday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing its reporters at the scene. A number of vehicles were buried on a road leading to the epicenter, and casualties were unknown.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the latest tremor measured magnitude 5.5 and was centered 6.2 miles below the surface, a relatively shallow quake like the initial disaster.

The government raised the death toll to 21,500 but has said fatalities could rise above 50,000. Tens of thousands could still be buried in collapsed buildings in Sichuan province, where the quake was centered, officials say.

President visits disaster zone
President Hu Jintao made his first trip to the disaster zone, rallying troops among the massive relief operation of some 130,000 soldiers and police.

"The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing," Hu was quoted as saying by Xinhua. "Quake relief work has entered into the most crucial phase. We must make every effort, race against time and overcome all difficulties to achieve the final victory of the relief efforts."

A Japanese rescue crew arrived early Friday — the first international relief workers in the disaster zone. China initially was reluctant to accept foreign offers of help, but the Foreign Ministry said early Friday that specialist teams from Russia, South Korea and Singapore also were welcome.

Singapore's Foreign Ministry said a 55-member team would arrive in Sichuan later Friday.

It was the first time ever that China accepted outside professionals for domestic disaster relief, Foreign Ministry counselor Li Wenliang told Xinhua.

Anger over schools' collapse
Chinese government officials, meanwhile, struggled to answer questions from angry citizens on why so many schools collapsed in Monday's earthquake. They vowed to punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction.

In a rare online exchange with ordinary Chinese, the first measure of the number of destroyed schoolrooms — 6,898 — emerged, with figures still to come from the hardest-hit areas.

"If quality problems do exist in the school buildings, we will punish those responsible severely and give the public a satisfactory answer," Han Jin, head of the Ministry of Education's development and planning department, said on a state-run forum.

In one case, a high school in Juyuan collapsed in seconds, killing all but a handful of the 900 students. In Mianzhu, close to where Hu arrived, seven fallen schools buried 1,700 people, Xinhua said, and about 1,300 bodies have been recovered so far.

Another 700 students were thought to be buried in a school in Hanwang town. Farther north in Beichuan, about 700 students were also still buried.

Nurse pulled from rubble
A day past what experts call the critical three-day window for finding buried survivors alive, rescuers pulled a nurse to safety who had been trapped for 96 hours in the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county. Two other victims were rescued alive elsewhere in that area.

On the road leading into Beichuan, police restricted the last couple miles to emergency vehicles. Military trucks and cranes edged around fallen boulders. Dozens of people searching for relatives also trudged up the winding mountain road, carrying backpacks and bags with food and medical supplies.

Liu Jingyong, a 43-year-old migrant worker searching for his cousin, traveled two days by bus and now by foot to get near his relative's home.

"I have not had any information from him," Liu said. "This is so hard on me."

One villager, Pan Guihui, stood on the side of the road with a vacant look on her face. She and her husband hiked 13 hours with her 1-year-old child, father and two brothers away from their destroyed village farther up the mountain. They had stayed in the rubble until rescue workers arrived and ordered them out over landslide fears.

"I have just been so frightened this whole time. I don't know what we are going to do," said Pan, 35. The only belongings the family had were some clothes and a little food. "We've lost everything. There's nothing left of our village, nothing left of our home."

New landslides likely
China's Ministry of Land and Resources warned that heavy rains forecast for the next few days would likely set off new landslides. The ministry said on its Web site that local authorities "must immediately mark off danger zones" to ensure rescue workers' safety.

The government said it had allocated a total 5.4 billion yuan, about $772 million, for earthquake relief, according to the central bank's Web site, up more than 380 percent from the money allocated two days ago.

Given the widespread destruction, AIR Worldwide — a catastrophe risk modeling firm — estimated losses to both insured and uninsured property would likely exceed $20 billion.
[/rquoter]

 

I agree and I don't want to blame the PRC government but examining the history of building codes and how they were enforced is going to be important. In almost every recent major earthquake where there has been a signifigant loss of life, such as Bam and in Turkey, shoddy building, poor codes and lax enforcement of building codes has been pointed out as contributing to the disaster. In moving forward to prepare for future earthquakes the PRC is going to have to take a hard look at its building codes as much as CA or anywhere else with a earthquake risk has.

 

There's always a tradeoff and residential even in the US is the area where the enforcement and codes are the most lax. Individual houses especially in rural areas where incomes and enforcement is low we can probably never expect them even in rich countries to meet the same standards but things like government institutions, large residential projects and large commercial projects should be expected to have better code enforcement.

Obviously building codes are self-defeating if they are so strict that no one can build anything but at the same time given what we know about construction to protect against disaster there should be something to prevent people from just building anything when with reasonable foresight written into codes many lives can be saved.

 

I'm not going to deny that the ARC has its problems and institutional bureaucracy and inefficiency is one of their biggest. The other problem I think is that they often fail to explain exactly how they operate. Every large institution though has its problems and for all of the ARC's problems they still do a lot of good work and money donated to the ARC will go to help disaster victims. What is unclear though to most people is given the scope of any particular disaster is whether it will go to that disaster or go to prepare for the next one.

I can tell you as an ARC volunteer that while most of what I've done is fill out paperwork in the end I have personally seen that victims are fed and shelter is provided.

Whether you feel that your money is better given to another organization that is your priority and as smart donors everyone should do some research about where their money goes to avoid scams, but I wouldn't say that giving money to the ARC is going to be a scam or a waste.