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.
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.