Faulty plans and imprudence make San Francisco buildings vulnerable to earthquake

We are prone to have ideas that everything in the western world and especially US is best. It doesn’t matter what are you looking at but it gets borne within you that you are witnessing the best product known hitherto. Well, this may be the result of a colonial mentality that is present within us by generations. Whatever it is, it is true that many things in the western world in comparison to the Orient are futile and also of low standards. There are in fact lots but perhaps the most prominent among them happen to be the wood-frame buildings of San Francisco. How can this take place in the mighty US? It is the unfortunate effect of faulty plans.

According to an ongoing seismic safety study conducted by eminent researchers the majority of the weakest wood-frame buildings of San Francisco, in the absence of a seismic retrofit, are vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes and destructions beyond imagination. Is there any possibility of earthquake? Well, if the prudence of the scientists is believed, large earthquake will exert its perilous effect on the city within decades.

Let’s discuss in details. According to the reports of the esteemed and crucial study there are 2,800 wood-frame buildings in the city, if not more. In all these buildings there happen to be almost 60,000 residents along with 7,000 employees and if there is any earthquake the buildings would suffer $4 billion in damage. What’s more, the scientists estimate that the presence of retrofits would lessen the damage but could cost more than $130,000 per property.

But you will be amazed to know that the study has covered less than 10 percent of the city’s residential units till now and this may make the damage costlier. It should be kept in mind that the number of these buildings is more in San Francisco than any other Bay Area city and the presence of neighborhoods perched on unstable soil makes their position more susceptible to danger. Keep in mind that a great number of these types of buildings were damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the Marina district and in Southern California during the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

Faulty plans and imprudence are the greatest perpetrators.