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LA Times - Mexico Earthquake Crumbles Concrete Buildings
LA Times - Mexico Earthquake Crumbles Concrete Buildings
A building that survived the last earthquake will not necessarily survive the next one. (Sept. 21, 2017)
By Rong-Gong Lin II
Contact Reporter
Seismic safety experts have long warned that brittle concrete frame
buildings pose a particularly deadly risk during a major earthquake. But a
horrifying video taken during this weeks earthquake may do more to
highlight the risk than years of reports and studies.
Sirens blare, utility poles sway. Then in the background, a wobbly building
is seen. Concrete starts falling out of a ground-floor column.
Then the columns flex and the upper floors come crashing down, sinking
into a cloud of dust.
Dios mo! Dios mo! a woman can be heard saying. My God! My God!
The magnitude 7.1 earthquake dramatically offered proof of the dangers of
these buildings. The crumbled private Enrique Rebsamen school in Mexico
City, a three-story building that left at least 25 dead including 21 students
believed to be 7 or 8 years old and the site of a frantic rescue effort that
captured worldwide attention, was made of concrete, as were many other
structures that fell to the ground.
Aqu el momento donde un edificio, al parecer en la C olonia R oma colapsa.
Two concrete buildings at the San Fernando Veterans Administration Hospital crumbled in
the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, killing 49 people. (Bruce Cox / Los Angeles Times)
The Pyne Gould Corp. building collapsed when the magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck
Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built in the 1960s, before the adoption of modern seismic
standards for concrete buildings. (Hannah Johnston / Getty Images)