Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria force California to modernize buildings

Los Angeles. Thousands of buildings in Southern California are slowly being strengthened to prepare for the next big earthquake.

There are more than 13,000 high-rise buildings in Los Angeles alone, structures built over open parking lots that could collapse during an earthquake. There are also more than 1,000 non-ductile concrete buildings, the same ones experts say collapsed after the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Millions of Southern Californians live in areas where there are no modernization mandates. Los Angeles has one, but the deadline is still decades away.

Civil engineer Keith Miyamoto, who has seen the devastation in Turkey firsthand and compared it to the aftermath of the Hiroshima nuclear explosion, said he believes Southern California is indebted.

“It’s a 100% guarantee,” he said. “I mean, there’s going to be a giant earthquake in Southern California.”

The San Andreas Fault is capable of producing 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Los Angeles, which could send strong tremors in the Los Angeles Basin within minutes, said Monica Kohler, an earthquake engineer at the California Institute of Technology.

In 1994, Los Angeles was hit by a magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake that killed 57 people and injured thousands.

“I’m afraid that because the last major earthquake happened so long ago, we forgot about it,” Kohler said. “We need to bring this to the fore.”

Kyle Turge, senior structural appraiser at Alpha Structural, said his teams are busy upgrading buildings.

“It’s expensive to do this upgrade,” Tourje said. “But if you don’t have a building left, it’s more expensive. If you have tenants that you’ve lost, that’s the biggest loss you can bear.”

Thank you for reading CBS news.

Create a free account or sign in to access more features.

Content Source

News Press Ohio – Latest News:
Columbus Local News || Cleveland Local News || Ohio State News || National News || Money and Economy News || Entertainment News || Tech News || Environment News

Related Articles

Back to top button