On June 5th, the New York Times published an article titled Buildings Can be Designed to Withstand Earthquakes. We couldn't agree more and would encourage the residents, businesses and governments living and operating in the United States to follow suit.
Please take a few minutes to read the article and learn how we are grossly behind in our building codes in the U.S.. Economically, it just makes sense for the long term, however as the article states, folks will argue that buildings will be replaced every 50 years or so, making the costs upfront .
According to the article, after a major earthquake,"Cities won't be usable for many months, if not years," said H. Kit Miyamoto, a member of the California Seismic Safety Commission, a government body that advises the State Legislature and the governor on earthquake issues. "Throwaway buildings equal a throwaway city."
Furthermore, the article also shared, a multiyear federal studyconcluded that fixing buildings after an earthquake costs four times more than building them more strongly in the first place. The United States is losing an estimated $4 billion for every year that it delays a stronger building code for earthquakes, the study calculated.
To learn more, please visit the link above and read on. Afterwards, if you are like minded that we could make our region more resilient with stronger building codes, please reach out to your legislators to share the article and your opinion. If not for you, consider the future generations.
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As always we are here to support you in your preparedness efforts. Please contact us if you have any comments or questions. We would be happy to share more about our preparedness measures and/or schedule a presentation, safety walk, tabletop exercise, home consultation or general consultation with HT2, please Click Here!