Italians angered by lack of earthquake preparedness

[CreekDog]

Source: Toronto Globe and Mail

While almost no building was spared, the modern buildings seemed to have suffered the worst damage. A four-storey apartment building on Via XX Settembre, one of the main streets leading up to the historic centre, was completely destroyed. Dozens of men removed rubble with shovels and their bare hands, looking for survivors. “They found a dead girl here,” said one of the rescue workers.

Mauro Sirolini, 58, a postman whose suburban house was not severely damaged, said he was upset by the shoddy construction of the modern apartment buildings. “The problem is that the new apartments aren't as strong as they should be,” he said. “The old ones can resist this to some degree. They must control the construction of the new buildings.”

...

The earthquake, Italy's deadliest since 1980, left a political scandal as rescue workers looked for hundreds of people feared trapped in the rubble. Only last week, Italy's Civil Protection Agency dismissed a seismologist's warnings that the mountainous Abruzzo region, whose capital is L'Aquila, was about to get hit with a massive earthquake.

The seismologist, Giampaolo Giuliani, works for the National Institute of Astrophysics and was monitoring seismic activity and levels of radon, a naturally occurring gas in the soil, to predict earthquakes. A month ago, vans with loudspeakers drove through L'Aquila repeating Mr. Giuliani's predictions. The city government was angered by his warnings and forced him to remove them from the Internet.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090406.witalyquake0406/BNStory/International/home

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The newer buildings fared most poorly in a region known for earthquake activity. Now, that is scandalous.

[williesgirl]

1. Unfortunately, just like Bush. Maybe they were reading My Pet Goat or vacationing for a month and

ignoring warnings? rec'd

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Maybe this earthquake was Berlusconi's Hurricane Katrina.......

:shrug:

[villager]

3. What!? Their rightwing privatizing government wasn't ready for a *public* disaster!?

n/t

[villager]

4. Dupe

n/t

[Delphinus]

5. I, too, had read that

a scientist had been alerting folks about the radon levels and predicting a quake. This was the mayor's response to it:

Italy's Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L'Aquila on March 31 to reassure the townspeople.

"The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L'Aquila," the civil protection agency said in a statement on the eve of that meeting.

[natasha moodley]

6. updates of earthquake

Hi

Are there any updates of the earthquake news.

[natasha moodley]

7. anyone living in Italy

I wanted to know if there is anyone living in Italy or Rome that is on this forum?

I am visiting Rome this Friday and still concerned. Don't know if this is a good idea.

I would really appreciate a reply.

South Africa

[ohio2007]

10. Go ! And remember, when in Rome

Enjoy the Spanish steps

[damntexdem]

8. Heckuva a job, Berlesconi!

;-)

[ohio2007]

9. The nation is a volcanic archipelago. Ancients of Pompeii and Herculaneum are the evidence ignored

as usual.
Vesuvius and Etna are still ticking and nobody is able to put a cork in it.

A Roman saying was:

"Live,laugh,love and enjoy
for we all die tomorrow"

aka,
eat drink and be merry.
( minus the second line of course ;) )

Thats the warning Italians are born into and outsiders can't comprehend.

[hugo_from_TN]

11. Since the area is prone to earthquakes, it makes sense that the older buildings will withstand them.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have made it this long. Darwinian building selection as it were.

[CreekDog]

12. but modern building codes should make newer buildings withstand even more

which means either there aren't adequate codes there or things aren't being built to code. in earthquake country that would be scandalous.

also, the ability to withstand an earthquake is in a buildings attachment to the ground and it's ability to be flexible (something old, unreinforced buildings aren't).

[hugo_from_TN]

13. My point was that any building that has stood

for centuries and for many large earthquakes is well suited for earthquakes whether that was the original intent or not. All the old buildings that were not well suited have fallen in previous earthquakes.

Your point on the new buildings and the building codes is taken. However, like many engineered structures, there are trade-offs between cost and robustness. Some buildings may be able to withstand a 6.5 but not a 7.0 without significant costs being added. Those same trade-offs are made when designing autos, bridges, dams, etc. Perfect safety is not possible, and near perfect safety is very expensive.

[CreekDog]

14. your overall logic can't be argued against

i would like to point out that in wealthy nations (Italy is one) areas prone to earthquakes have building codes that are designed to have buildings withstand well over 6.3 --that isn't too big a sacrifice to ask.

however, if they don't have building codes like that or aren't enforcing them, then that is a travesty. buildings built since the 1980's should have minimum standards that are very strong and even these are not that burdensome.

where i live, built in 1974, has tiebacks built into the structure (not rocket science either) and i have steel i-beams framing my garage that are bolted to the foundation (also, not rocket science).

[hugo_from_TN]

16. Great points.

It will be interesting to see any analysis of what types of buildings failed.

[goforit]

15. And all the Italians thought that Bersoluni was their dream come true.