By Rob Nesbit : kron4 – excerpt
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Thursday marked the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire that devastated San Francisco, killing 3,000 people. It’s been more than a century since then and a lot of lessons have been learned when it comes to being prepared for a quake.
Before 1906, building codes were lax because of profits. For instance, wood was used more to save money. That doesn’t happen today, but there’s still concerns for safety.
Building codes have been updated, but when Dave Osgood from the Coalition For San Francisco Neighborhoods researched data on 180 of the city’s tallest buildings he found concerns.
“There are 43 tall buildings with the same kind of foundation that the Millennium Tower had before it started leaning and had to be propped up,” Osgood said.
The number one priority in cases like this is safety.
Emily Guglielmo, president of the Structural Engineers Assoc. of California, says that modern buildings codes do a good job of saving lives in the event of an earthquake. But she also said there’s room for improvement when it comes to making sure buildings are usable after shaking.
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Last time we worked on seismic upgrades for our building, we were told that the upgrade that brought us up to code for a public space, is only guaranteed to save lives. Not guaranteed to be safe after a big earthquake.