Lack of construction codes sealed Haitian capital's fate

[babylonsister]

* Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010
Lack of construction codes sealed Haitian capital's fate
By Jacqueline Charles and Curtis Morgan | Miami Herald


PORT-AU-PRINCE — A new hospital in the Turgeau neighborhood dissolved into a pancaked stack of concrete floor slabs surrounded by broken toilets. The shell of a nearby high school rested atop its crumbled first floor.

But just across Avenue Jean Paul II, a gleaming aluminum-and-glass skyscraper escaped almost unscathed. Digicel's headquarters, the tallest building in Haiti completed a little more than a year ago by the country's largest phone company, stands out even more than it did before a powerful 7.0 earthquake left much of this city in ruins. A First World tower in a Third World city, it was designed using American building codes to endure 7.2 shock waves or higher. It did.

"You don't call the structural engineer in at the end of your drawing. You start with the structural engineer before it's built,' said architect Christian Dutour, pleased after surveying his 12-story building. "Otherwise, it doesn't work."

In a way, that also explains why so many other structures in its shadow collapsed.

Most buildings in Haiti go up without engineers, standards or inspections. The earthquake is only the latest, and worst, tragedy to expose the largely unregulated and slapdash construction long accepted on the island — practices that structural engineers believe added to a staggering death toll that could reach 200,000.

While extensive death and destruction would be expected from a 7.0 temblor so close to a densely populated and dirt-poor city, earthquake experts have nonetheless been shocked by the catastrophic failure of so many prominent and critical buildings.

It wasn't just humble shacks and turn-of-the-previous-century icons like the historic Roman Catholic Cathedral of Port-au-Prince, but new and newly renovated schools, police stations, bank branches, high-end hotels and hospitals. The U.S. Agency for International Development reported Thursday that 13 of 15 government ministry buildings had been destroyed.

"This was pseudo-engineering. It was terrible," said Eduardo Fierro, a California-based forensic and seismic engineer who was among the first experts to survey the damage.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/82915.html

[aquart]

1. Is that why people were able to Twitter?

[babylonsister]

2. ?? What does twittering have to do with the construction code? nt

[csziggy]

14. The building left standing belonged to Haiti's largest phone company

That could explain why there was still telephone and internet access. I have been surprise that communications have continued as well as they have considering the extent of the destruction.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. They brought teh cell towers back online in 36 hours

this is a lesson actually. Cell phone systems are more resilient than land lines, as much as I love me land line.

Mexico City took a week for the system to come back up. The communications tower went down. That was actually local and foreign engineers to bring that up.

[csziggy]

24. That is pretty good! And, yes, cell systems are easier to restore

Living as I do in an area with a lot of trees, every storm drops trees on the wires. Before they started running fiber optic underground, every time we had a bad thunderstorm, our power and our phones would go out. Now just the power goes. But at least I can call it in on the cell phone - as long as I leave home since I get no signal at my house.

[vaberella]

12. Twittering has nothing to do with that. My cousins used the internet too.

That's related to phone lines. End of story and there are several different phone companies in Haiti so some had service and others didn't. And if you assumed Haiti had no computers then you're a fool. Haiti, for all it's seemingly backwardness was very advanced. The had computers, minor roads in the major cities and so on and so forth. There were companies and businesses in Haiti, both national and international. So I don't know on what assumption you're basing your statement.

[aquart]

27. I asked because I didn't have TV for six weeks after the towers fell.

Except for CBS which had the foresight to put a second antenna on the Empire State Building which was unharmed.

And because, during a blackout in NYC, people with cell phones couldn't place calls. But we were able to use a payphone to ask what had happened.

I'm not sure what links to what but I do know that some people on CNN were twittering during a power failure in the Haiti night. So I wondered if they were able to twitter because the Digicel building stood. I don't know if there's a relationship to that building remaining functional and internet access. So I asked.

"Digicel, the largest mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean and a recent new entrant to the Central American mobile market."

[vaberella]

30. My family from what I know don't use Digicel.

That may be Caribbean but not in Haiti. I believe Teleco is the largest in Haiti. Most of my famly was on Teleco and this ther random line.

And yeah that could be related to those people who had access to it and had that one. My family had problem with Teleco because that was down. Only one was on another line, who's name I forgot. I don't know anyone in my family using Digicel---so yeah..it could be a reason.

[gratuitous]

3. Libertarian paradise

Why would you want the government telling you how to build your building? Why shouldn't architects and contractors be allowed to build their buildings any way they want to? If the tenants get squished in an earthquake, that's their problem. Besides, all that corrupt government regulation will just run up the costs and strangle the profit motive. Nobody will want to build big buildings if they have to go through all that hassle! It'll ruin the economy, costs jobs, and hurt small business.

It just boggles my mind that these bullshit Republican/Loonytarian talking points keep coming back and coming back. The proof is right there for anyone who cares to look; and maybe that's the problem with our public discourse.

[Gman2]

4. The problem is poverty. Plain and simple. And it is engineered.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. No a police station or other government buildings

even in poor places, do follow a minimum of standards.

There is quite a bit of poverty in Mexico City, why the hell do you think the Metro survived an 8.1 that lasted a minute and a half? CODES

Where there were failures... bribes...

[vaberella]

9. It's a bit more than that. The poverty is not caused by the people but by the corruption of gov.

Haiti has always had a shady government except maybe under Boier and maybe under Francois Duvalier---depending on your take. So when you're looking at the poverty it's directly associated with the government and it's association with the US which has lead to a systematic and basically overrunig of poverty in the nation.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I am wondering P waves and a few other things

codes do make a difference... but also Haiti is the heaven of libertarian, keep guv'ment off my back thinking...

It will be hard, even after this tragedy, to impose any kind of building codes...

No this is not racist, we have our own legendary code breakers round where I live, with healthy bribes, but it is not as endemic yet.

[csziggy]

16. One of the things found after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida was the lack of inspection

Even though the inspections had signed off on, the inspectors did not do their jobs. Combine that with shoddy constructions techniques and when a disaster happens, there is massive building failure.

Florida strengthened their codes, but the inspectors and the contractors did not end up being punished for their failures discovered after Andrew. Little was said after the 2004 hurricane season, though there were failures that should not have happened. But Jeb Bush's people did not want to blame business for those failures, so they were ignored.

Codes are no good if there is poverty or greed that will ignore them to make more money.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Exactly, but it is not yet as endemic

though our local city hall got itself entangled in a little building fun.

Near Airport, they forgot the FAA... and assumed that once open nobody would bat an eye. FAA enforced it, they had to take two floors off... what a mess.

[vaberella]

7. It's not that. Lack of any form of bureaucracy is what did it. Haiti has ZERO! n/t

[undeterred]

8. Deregulation, its a paradise.

NOT.

[vaberella]

10. Deregulation and trickle down economics. n/t

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. 3rd Year Geology Prof. "Earthquakes don't kill people, falling buildings kill people"

[vaberella]

13. Basically, however Haiti is complicated. It has Earthquakes and major floods.

For instance where my family house in Port-au-Prince is...there is a major split or crevice. Like you can look down and it's like looking down a mountain and across the way is another set of houses. It's like looking from New York at New Jersey or better yet, looking at Manhattan across from Queens as you pass the Queensborough Bridge. And all of that used to be houses and land that was completely eradicated because of a flood and they never rebuilt that area because it floods regularly and the water even reaches the inside of my house...that's how bad that is. But the land can't really be elevated any more. So there's water that leads o massive erosion and we're talking this happening several times a year. Added to that Earthquakes.

My mum said if there was a Tsunami (and ther has been in the past) added to the Earthquake there would no longer be a Haiti. And technically she'd be right.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. You are also talking of the substrate

which is sandy.

It can be overcome with a lot of regulation that makes construction very expensive... and only to a limit.

You'd need to dig into it, long pillars... (and trust me, some Californians are in for a shock, a quake with enough of an intensity, with certain characteristics, will do the same damage as Port Au Prince) That said, that only makes earthquakes a little more survivable.

On the bright side, we do not have too many eight pointers... and the seven pointers are a little more survivable. That said, I was not that impressed after Northridge. We have issues here as well.

There is a reason why many earthquake prone zones used to have lower population densities. And yes I looked at the damage map, and I am betting the substrate is also quite sandy... the areas that were not that damaged, I am betting closer to solid rock.

Oh and good luck to you and your family. I am glad to see you here.

[HipChick]

19. a lot of the Caribbean Islands, including Haiti, have no building codes

Many homes are built on stilts with no solid foundation to overcome uneven surfaces..If you look at the OAS for building codes in the Caribbean - there was nothing listed for Haiti because it failed to obtain funding..and I think it was international funding.

many Caribbean countries have building laws based on the Caribbean Uniform Building Code,but in many places,rules exist only on paper.

this house is typical,built on the side of a hill..

[Ernesto]

25. I just hope that there is plenty

of re-bar inside those concrete beams and columns!

[briguy1967]

20. I don't think ...

That even if there were building codes that they would even be enforceable given the crushing poverty.

You can write all the laws you want, but they need to be enforced. Good luck with that down there.

[HipChick]

21. international funding was not continued for implementation of building standards in Haiti..

http://www.architectureweek.com/cgi-bin/wlk?http://www.oas.org/dsd/Nat-Dis-Proj/HBSD/Overview.htm

However, the proposal for developing the standards phase has been fully developed and waiting to be implemented pending funding.



http://www.architectureweek.com/2010/0113/news_1-2.html

The building standards development effort for Haiti was fully planned at that point. It failed to go forward because international funding was not continued for implementation. Continuing regional efforts at updating model building codes for earthquakes and for wind loads, coordinated by the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), also appear to need increased support to be effective.

[sendero]

22. Lack of codes...

.. or lack of money to build to code?

Sounds simplistic to me.

[Xithras]

23. Steel is the most expensive building material there is.

You can pass building codes, and hire an army of armed code inspectors to prevent a single non-reinforced building from being put up again, but if the people are too poor to afford the steel, the result will simply be widespread homelessness. Requiring it is pointless if there is no money to buy it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. There are materials that are a tad nobler in that case

problem is that this leads to another issue... on the island, deforestation,

[lazarus]

28. bamboo

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22934387/

Bamboo is the solution. That stuff is stronger than concrete, lighter than steel, and grows fast.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. It could be and not just for Haiti either.