By Claire Hao : sfchronicle – excerpt
When will San Franciscans be able to know whether their office or apartment buildings are at risk in a major earthquake?
The city does keep a list, published last month by NBC News, of 3,400 buildings believed to be concrete that could be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake.
- Earthquake tracker: Mapping the latest quakes in California and across the world
Concrete buildings could account for 50% of deaths in a 1906-size earthquake in San Francisco, according to a 2010 city-commissioned study. They are one of the most significant kinds of buildings yet to be retrofitted for earthquake safety in San Francisco and are located on nearly every block in downtown, the Tenderloin and Chinatown.
But city officials and structural engineers caution that this list is preliminary and inaccurate — which is why The Chronicle is not publishing it.
A better list will come, according to Brian Strong, director of the city’s Office of Resilience and Capital Planning, only after the Board of Supervisors passes a seismic retrofit ordinance for concrete buildings, which city staff are currently developing and plan to have before the board by the beginning of next year.
“We can’t compel property owners to give us information on their buildings without going to the Board of Supervisors,” Strong said…(more)