On Earthquake Safety

[benlehman]

Having grown up in earthquake country, the recent spate of them making the news has brought something to my mind. This is pretty important, in terms of politics, and we should all think about it.

The earthquake in Haiti has caused horrible devastation, killing somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 people, which is a truly appalling number. The earthquake in Chile, meanwhile, has a present death count in the 700s, which may rise over 1000 when all the bodies are found.

The earthquake in Chile was well over 50x (edit: 63x, precisely) more forceful than the earthquake in Haiti, but 200x less people have died. Why?

Building codes.

Chile is an industrialized country with modern building codes. Modern building codes include significant earthquake safety, such that most people in a modern building during an earthquake are going to be, if not perfectly safe, not in danger of their lives.

Haiti is not an industrialized country, and does not have modern building codes, or really any sort of building codes to speak of (in terms of practical enforcement.)

We could talk about building codes "saving lives" but I think that that's the wrong way to think about it. Here's how I would think about it: Earthquakes do not kill people. Bad building codes, or lax building code enforcement practices, kill people.

Comments

[heyunyi.livejournal.com]

Earthquakes do not kill people. Bad building codes, or lax building code enforcement practices, kill people.

That sounds a little extreme. You're arguing that under ideal building code enforcement no one would ever die in an earthquake, ever? Maybe I'm just taking your statement too literally.

[psychotropek.livejournal.com]

This. I noticed this with Turkey's 1999 earthquake. A 7.4 quake, eighteen thousand people dead. Probably related to the lack of enforced building codes- many buildings did not have a solid foundation but instead the skeleton of one, which was filled with sand. Sand. Also weak columns.

1999 was year of earthquakes for Eileen's family. Nobody was hurt that I knew personally.

[meguey.livejournal.com]

Been thinking the same exact thing.

[shouldberaining.livejournal.com]

Haiti also has the distinct disadvantage of being crappier than Chile in pretty much every metric. The building codes are just one example of a host of issues that contribute to their problems. I guess what I'm saying is that they have more to fix than just building codes and I see no clear path to them doing so anytime in the near future.

But as a lesson to the U.S. or other developed nations, this is a good one.