Earthquake Risk and Planning here.......after Nepal

ju10prd

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The images of the utter destruction in Nepal after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake over the weekend raises my worst fears of living in this earthquake high risk country.

I was always very uneasy living in the Cibao and during my time in Samana, being aware that the major fault lines cross those areas, but reality is that the whole country is at risk.

There are not that many good articles on line giving you a history of the earthquakes that have hit this country but some very large events have occurred historically which would make Nepal look a very weak affair indeed, and one dreads to think of the likely damage.

Earthquakes, Terremotos and Temblor de Tierra in Dominican Republic

The most recent major earthquake was in 1946 was 8.1 and followed by a very significant after shock.

Seems the very very large ones are at least a hundred years apart......let's hope so.

Mindful of the risk, I wonder how many home owners have ever thought of having a structural engineer experienced in seismic structural design carry out a review of their properties. Building codes here were only changed upgraded a couple of years ago following findings from the Haiti earthquake. And how many people have an emergency plan in the event of feeling those severe tremors.

I'm renting a ground floor apartment in the city and often wonder if my luck will be out one night whilst asleep! I have decided to locate myself between some sturdy furniture in a corner of the bedroom working on the basis that even if the floor caves in there should be sufficient support to provide an air space by an exterior wall.
 

Criss Colon

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Jan 2, 2002
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YOU LIVE IN THE DR, AND YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT "Earth Quakes'??????????????

NOW that's what dominicans call, "buscando problemas"!!!!!!!!!!
It's # 5,286 on my list of things to worry about in the DR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other 5,285 have sometHing to do with DOMINICANS!!!!!!!!!!!!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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I would not live in SD or Santiago. There is no earthquake planning in construction. The DR is totally unprepared to help the population in the event of a major quake. Besides the hurricanes the earthquakes are another reason I like Sosua. Not much to fall down on me. I lived in Florida during a hurricane. I was shocked at how little the state and federal government helped. Wait on line in the hot sun for an hour to get a bag of ice. That was the extent of help. Following the hurricane the cost of all forms of insurance skyrocketed. Life is a risk but living in a hurricane or earthquake zone is a matter of choice. I learned my lesson in Florida.
 

keepcoming

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May 25, 2011
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Acts of nature are just a part of life. I am sure it is in the back of everyone's mind buried somewhere. If you spend everyday worrying about the what if's you won't have time to enjoy the what is. Right now my main concern is getting through traffic unscathed. And that the AC holds out during the "heat wave" since it is on more than normally. Worrying about an earthquake here would possibly set me over the edge in this heat. And of course would the government really give us the correct information? As here things change day to day, person to person.
 

ju10prd

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Olly works for a oil company or just doesnt get sarcasm :

Sarcasm is a Brit thing........my instinct is that Olly like me has very genuine concerns about the effect of the inevitable 'biggy' which will hit these parts sooner or later.

The ignorance of the risk, abominable building standards in general for all domestic and lesser constructions, and total lack of preparedness suggests similarities with Haiti and indeed what we are seeing in Nepal.

To suggest that it is a low priority in ones thinking is unthinkable if you have family. To think that we all ok because we have buildings built by unskilled untrained workers and commercially minded contractors cutting corners without building controls of poor concrete construction and inadequate structural design until 2012 is willful thinking. And to think Sosua is safer than SD is misguided because you only have to see what a mere 6.7 dis back in 2003 to low rise buildings and read about the tsunami that followed the 8.1 in 1946.

Fact is DR1 readers are blissfully uninterested in the fact that they are at equal or higher risk than those poor folk in Nepal.

As Olly wrote above DR1 should have some advice for newcomers on this very real hazard.

Enjoy your rum.
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Apr 29, 2014
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Assuming that one doesn't get buried in a pile of rubble, has enough food and water for a couple of weeks and six or seven pesos to rub together, don't the surviving gringos just go home after a devastating natural disaster? A boat trip to PR and then a flight from there or any airport that is still working (here or in Haiti) a week or so after the event when the initial surge dies down. Maybe some can hitch a ride out of here on relief flights that have dropped their goods and are heading north.

If society and infrastructure are in chaos, I see no reason to stay here unless one has no where else to go.
 

ju10prd

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Olly works for a oil company or just doesnt get sarcasm :

Sarcasm is a British thing and I think Olly has the same concerns as me.

There seems little interest in the subject matter that this country is indeed at equal or probably greater risk than Nepal where we are seeing such harrowing stories.

DR1 readers seem blissfully unaware, uninterested or live in denial of the risk that they face each and every minute of every day in every part of this country.

To suggest as a family man that consideration of the risks is very low in your thinking is hard to understand. To think that I am all right because Nepal has lower standards of construction is misguided; fact is DR concrete and block construction is for the main, for domestic and small commercial buildings, very poor indeed with very low concrete quality built by unsupervised and untrained unskilled operatives employed by unscrupulous commercially minded contractors cutting all corners, and unchecked by government authorities. And to think Sosua is a better option to avoid the 'biggie' defies logic being sat between the two major faults in the country, be mindful of what damage the relatively weak 6.7 earthquake did to properties in PP in 2003 and add to that that the site of 1946 8.1 earthquake was not so far way and was accompanied by a large tsunami.

Olly is right, DR1 should post some information on the high earthquake hazard risk in this country.
 

chic

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Nov 20, 2013
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there was a major...i felt it telephone poles wiggling cars dancing in the streets...but all major bldgs are on (SPRINGS) those built in the last 20 are....(this for a better term)
my first tremor was in colonial hotel and i was scared but the floor moved and there was no damage etc... the haiti quake felt all over...:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: