Re: [californiadisasters] This Seems Foolish in Earthquake Country

Mark,

The Northridge Quake exposed some problems with welds in high-rise steel-frame structures that did not come down only because the quake did not last long enough and most of its energy was directed away from the LA Basin and San Fernando Valley in particular. Next time we might not be so lucky and I don't know that the problems with the welds has been resolved in either new construction or in retrofitting older construction. The quake will fix anything we fail to. Everybody seems to claim to have the best standards until they get shown up in the next big quake. We thought we had fixed the freeway interchanges after the 1971 Sylmar Quake when 5/210 interchange collapsed only to find we were wrong when the 1994 Northridge Quake knocked down the 5/14 ininterchange. That year the Japanese ran their mouths that such destruction could not happen their due to their standards only to be shown up a year to the day later when the Hanshin Expressway in Kobe fell over on its side in the most dramatic and photogenic infrastructure failure in human history.

Kimmer

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 5:57 PM, Lewack, Mark A. <Mark.Lewack@opm.gov> wrote:

I can think of a lot of reasons why they would consider the high-rise.  The most obvious is $$$. Hollywood (as in entertainment business and related industries) generates a lot of revenue - and I am not referring to adult entertainment, if that is still king there.  Also, if memory serves me right, high-rises don't usually collapse as often as private homes do (esp. those along the coast or below deforested slopes (areas prone to fires/mudslides/flooding)).  I assume real estate is still hurting in So Cal, so that makes the building of a high rise even more appealing.

Are the building codes for commercial real estate more stringent than private homes?  I'm pretty sure, again quoting from memory, that earthquake-resistent codes in earthquake-prone areas of So. Cal. are among the best in the country.

Mark Lewack
Emergency Actions Coordinator
FSC, Security Services & Emergency Actions

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

202-606-5415/202-345-4640 (cell phone)

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From: californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com [californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Robert Buerer [tktbob@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 3:23 PM
To: californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [californiadisasters] This Seems Foolish in Earthquake Country

Interesting, I was involved in the agricultural industry in the San Jouquin Valley until the mid 1980's. farmers had harnessed the water and electricity from the Sierra Nevada's. soon people migrated from the bay area to live on 'prime' agricultural land. as the cost of producing food increases, the higher the price in the market. now ag is being blamed for using too much water that the bedroom communities want. vicious cycle. tktbob

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