Re:The $3500 Shirt – A History Lesson in Economics
by Animats on Sunday January 25, 2015 @04:02AM
(#8942466)
The latest SF seismic retrofit program is for wooden buildings. Brick buildings, which are at much higher risk in an earthquake, were fixed long ago.
There were 1,987 unreinforced masonry buildings in SF in 1990, and all but 158 were fixed by 2013. That's why, all over SF, you see diagonal steel beams inside brick buildings, sometimes across windows. There are now supposedly only 29 unreinforced brick buildings left, mostly ones that are abandoned or scheduled for demolition. A few are still occupied, including some non-patient buildings at SF General Hospital.
In a really big quake, many buildings will be damaged, but structural collapse in SF should be rare. The occupants get to survive.
There were 1,987 unreinforced masonry buildings in SF in 1990, and all but 158 were fixed by 2013. That's why, all over SF, you see diagonal steel beams inside brick buildings, sometimes across windows. There are now supposedly only 29 unreinforced brick buildings left, mostly ones that are abandoned or scheduled for demolition. A few are still occupied, including some non-patient buildings at SF General Hospital.
In a really big quake, many buildings will be damaged, but structural collapse in SF should be rare. The occupants get to survive.