On Friday afternoon, Jeremy and I explored the downtown areas of Calexico and El Centro. Overall, the majority of the “modern” buildings (built in the 50’s or later??) in these cities appeared to be fine and most areas are still busy and operating even with an occasional boarded window. However, in the older downtown areas, where the majority of the building date to the 1910’s or 1920’s, you could see the damage. Calexico seemed to have more ...
Posted by Lisa Everingham on April 13, 2010 10:11 PM
Our second stop was a hospital in El Centro. From the main entrance it appeared to be business as usual. This site was of interest to use because USGS Station 0412 recorded a peak ground acceleration of 0.38g. A few spots in the corridors had ceilings that cracked but had not come down. So the facility was able to maintain operation with a minimum of clean up. ...
Posted by Travis Sanders on April 13, 2010 8:35 PM
Two other engineers from San Diego and I arrived in El Centro Friday morning and consulted the local paper for additional information on the earthquake damage. We discovered an article that mentioned that a church just down the street from where we were had been damaged, and that the steeple was being taken down for safety concerns. We noticed the cranes in the distance, and headed straight to the site, finding a demolition crew in the process of ...
Posted by Jeremy Callister on April 13, 2010 8:32 PM
The morning of February the 27th (Saturday) I was at home browsing the internet. It is difficult to describe a train of thought when you first find out these types of facts: An 8.8 earthquake hits south of Santiago; Concepcion, Chile’s second largest city, is most damaged; strong shaking lasts almost a minute; inaccurate information leads the president to disregard a tsunami threat, and the consequences are devastating.
My first reaction was to contact family and friends in Santiago ...
Posted by Alvaro Celestino on April 12, 2010 5:09 PM
Geoff Norcross of Oregon Public Broadcasting interviewed Kent Yu to discuss Oregon's earthquake preparedness.
Find more information here
Posted by Laurie on April 8, 2010 7:44 PM
REPUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION OF ASCE
In an effort to learn from Chile's devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on Feb. 27, ASCE will be sending three technical assessment teams to the South American nation in the coming weeks to study the performance of critical infrastructure systems. Teams from two ASCE institutes — Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute and Structural Engineering Institute — along with a team from the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering will investigate those areas of infrastructure that ...
Posted by Laurie on April 7, 2010 11:33 PM
