How come Haiti ended up being destroyed b/c places like California have earthquakes as well?
Jan 22, 2010
in
Earthquake Questions
I feel ignorant asking this, but I feel like the earthquake in Haiti seems way too disastrous… possibly preventable. When earthquakes happen in the US they arent as devastating. Was it just a very harsh quake?
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19 comments
Mallory on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
it was one of the strongest earthquake that we have ever had!! And its not a dumb question!!
cc is psyched! on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
The building codes are different. People in SF figured out a long time ago how to build structures that can withstand earthquakes.
Bob Arnold on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
they have absolutely zero building safety codes down there so the buildings are easily destroyed, killing more people. Also they are right on a very unstable tectonic boundary.
Mujer Alta on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
Earthquakes in a lot of the world cause much more damage and many more deaths than they do here in California. If they had our strict building codes and our cold, mean building inspectors, they’d have less damage, too. Try to bribe a building inspector here in CA and you’ll end up in jail. It hasn’t always been like this. Many schools and unreinforced buildings collapsed in the 1933 Long Beach quake which, luckily, occured after school was out. It was a big wake-up call… but not big enough. Many homes and older buildings suffered much damage in the Whittier Narrows quake of the late 1980′s and the laws were made even stronger. All older, unreinforced buildings had to be reinforced or torn down. All homes had to be bolted to their foundations. A lot of the old buildings were historic landmarks. If you look at them today, you’ll see holes drilled into their walls where they were reinforced. Facades still fall every once and a while though. During the Northridge quake a number of multi-story apartment buildings, a bunch of freeways, a huge parking structure, the side of a multi-story commercial building collapsed and other parts of buildings cracked and/or fell. So, there’s still no quarantee that you won’t be mashed during an earthquake even here.
Ivan on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
THE EARTHQUAKES IN HAITI ARE STRONGER
Pet on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
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likespiechris on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
Yes and seeing as though they are a lot poorer its worse for them.
plz answer mine
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aq5i3CVCLGl4YAIw8h2U32rsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100117175641AAxaah9
Chris on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
the Richter scale measures how deep in the Earth an earthquake occurs. The one that hit Haiti was a 7.0, about 6 miles underneath the surface of the Earth. Los Angeles was hit by a HUGE quake in the earlier 1900′s, as L.A. and Haiti are both pretty much right on a fault line. The damage depends on the severity of the quake and the engineering of the affected areas.
Rachel on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
not only was the earthquake stronger, but Haiti is a poorer nation than the U.S. They don’t have many "earthquake-safe" buildings that Californians have.
StirfyKaulitz<3 on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
Well, it is a very harsh earthquake. However, part of the devastation is coming from the fact that they have no government, and therefore no census, and no way to know who’s alive, missing, dead, etc. There is no army, there is no government. There’s no way for any organized help.
It’s so sad.
j on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
no building codes we have building codes so are building’s are stronger it wouldn’t of been that bad if they just used rebar
jeligula on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
California has been hit hard before and will be hit so hard in the future that it will make Haiti look like a picnic. The same thing happened in Kobe, Japan, and the majority of that city was razed. New construction in California needs to be reinforced because of earthquakes and Haiti had nothing like those codes in place at all. None of this will matter to Californians when the big one hits, trust me.
Joy M on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
A lot of times it has to do with the construction of the buildings. Usually, in earthquake-prone areas, the buildings are made to withstand fairly high levels of shaking with minimal damage. This is the case in California. Haiti, while being in a disaster-prone area, is extremely poor. Even though the country is susceptible to both hurricanes and earthquakes, they cannot afford to build in such a way to withstand the potential damage. Looking through pictures of the damage, you can see that there were a fair amount of slums throughout Port-au-Prince. These shoddily-assembled homes could topple with just a minimum of shaking.
By the way, Stirfy, Haiti DOES have an organized government.
Fiona on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
The architecture in Haiti is not very good. Here in California, we plan buildings to withstand disasters like earthquakes by making tall buildings more flexible just like in the south, they plan for tornadoes buy making cellars and safe rooms.
illitrt on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
It was unusually close to the surface.
Don’t worry, California’s turn is coming.
peaceā„happiness on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
1) the earthquakes in haiti are really strong cuz they are on the edge of the plate
2) they are really poor so their buildings arent as good and strong as the ones in california.
3) they don’t prepare for them as well as california because they don’t HAVE ANY MONEY THEY ARE THE POOREST NATION IN THE WORLDDDDDD
Ingmar on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
Haiti is a 3rd world country. From the images I’ve seen on the news, many of the buildings looked pretty weak/ poorly constructed to begin w/. Again, Haiti is a 3rd world country. In fact, it’s the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Spindrift on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
You’re comparing one of the richest countries in the world, the USA, with the poorest country in the world. CA has safe sound structures built to quake specifications; Haiti’s buildings are cardboard and paper. BIG difference.
Silvercool on January 22, 2010 at 6:31 am
Haiti is poor, buildings are made with poorly resources, the earthquake scale was 7.3… you do the math… it’s like building a brick house in the middle of the ocean… it wont last a couple of days… it’s all the same make a north pole home made of ice, in the Caribbean… where the sun and temperature is always hot…