damage report from the earthquake.

AZB · Sep 22, 2003

Seems like the big structures have sustained the heaviest damage in santiago downtown area. Ferreteria Bellon is closed due to severe structural damage (serious cracks everywhere) and employees are prevented from entering.

Super Pola/La sirena have suffered structural damage as well and are closed (av. bartelome colon).

The plaza next to Super Pola / La sirena complex (plaza coral) has also suffered structural support damage (supporting beams) and seems closed too. Chunks of cement blocks have been fallen off, huge cracks are visible everywhere and tiles have been stripped off. I suspect alot of businesses which are located in huge building have sustained heavy damage and are all closed. I wonder if plaza internacional is closed as well?

The grocery store may be closed for another reason, the falling bottles and other stuff. I know for fact a few colmados are closed because the owners are still cleaning up the mess from broken liquer bottles from shelves.

When I had heard people mention about a small shock in SD, I thought they were talking about a different country. The shake was very violent in santiago area. Neighbors are reporting damage to their property and the mess that was created from falling picture frames and decorating ornaments. Luckly no one is injured at the moment in my area of residence.

Hell, I am still feeling the after shocks as early as 9:05 am.

Larry is sound alseep as I write this from my office. The poor guy had enough of the scare last night.

Will keep you all posted about my findings as day goes by.

P.S. This was all eye witness abservation. This was all seen on Av. Bartolome colon. I am not sure of the damage done in other locations as i have not had the time to drive around.

AZB · Sep 22, 2003

an up close inspection.

Now that the earth has stopped trembling, people are slowly feeling safe and calm. I drove around to see an up close look at the damage caused by the Mother Nature. Again, I was only in route through Av. Bartelome colon towards my house. It seems the ferreterria Bellon (one block round building structure) has sustained extensive damage to its structural supports. Not one wall or support pillar is spared from heavy cracks and damage. The whole building is badly damaged and won?t be open to business anytime soon. It was a miracle it didn?t collapsed. If the jolts have continued on for a few more seconds, many multi-storey building would have come apart in santiago. Plaza coral is also damaged and unsafe for business. Many walls have sustained multiple cracks and split A/C units have come off the side walls and hanging by metal tubing or a stubborn bolts. The tiles have fallen down thus, showing damage to the structure underneath.
Super Pola (grocery store) with the Sirena store on top has also suffered structural damage. The outside wall exhibits a huge horizontal fracture. The buildings are closed either by the insurance companies (for safety inspections) or they are really unsafe to be opened to public.
Another building (half commercial and half residential) has gotten its outside wall fractured. The work is already being performed to correct the defect in the supports. The workers have broken down the whole wall, thus exposing the insides of the business and assessing the damage to the support pillars.

There were many other building with multiple cracks and fallen chunks of concrete.
My house has also suffered some cracks in the bathroom walls. I would imagine if the earthquake had lasted a few more seconds, I would have been resting in peace under heavy chunks of concrete slabs. I bet this would have made the day of many DR1 posters.
Hahahahaha. (just kidding).

Plaza internacional is not damaged but businesses are closed (especially Gold Gym) for safety inspections. The plaza will open tomorrow.

I saw an American airline plane land in the STI airport so the airport must be open.

Dolores1 · Sep 22, 2003

Just talked to an owner of a store in Plaza Internacional, the upscale Santiago mall, and he tells me the stores opened as usual today. Some cracks, but only minor. He says it was business as usual this morning.

AZB · Sep 22, 2003

So then Golds gym on the third floor is closed for the day, for inspections. The girl told me that the plaza was closed for the day. I guess she meant the gym.

Dolores1 · Sep 22, 2003

The No. 3 bulletin of the COI reports that the most affected are the students of public schools in Puerto Plata. Some 140 classrooms suffered damage and this means 18,000-20,000 students need to be relocated for the school year. This also raises red flags to the quality of construction of the public schools. In addition to Puerto Plata, public schools in Moca, Fantino, Maria Trinidad Sanchez and Villa Mella (Province of Santo Domingo) were affected.

Also damaged was the old dock of Puerto Plata port. The whole port is due for a redoing, and there is a proposal that was dependent on the removal of a power plant in the port area.

Puerto Plata power plants suffered damages.

No damages to farming or manufacturing, or dams.

Mentioned DR set a record of having an earthquake of 6.5 and only suffered two deaths due to heart attack at the impression. This also occurred when a woman watching the volleyball finals in the Pan Am Games (Cuba-DR) also died of a heart attack.

Rear Admiral Radhames Lora Salcedo also said on a positive side, it now will be easier to enforce construction standards to avoid damages in the future.

bob saunders · Sep 22, 2003

In Jarabacoa some of the public school developed cracks but my wifes school is perfectly fine and stayed open.

Keith R · Sep 22, 2003

Dolores said:
Rear Admiral Radhames Lora Salcedo also said on a positive side, it now will be easier to enforce construction standards to avoid damages in the future.

But are there construction standards vis-a-vis earthquakes in the DR??? And exactly who would enforce them? Anyone we can have faith in do their job consistently, seriously, honestly & faithfully????

It's sad that the public schools have proven to be the most vulnerable -- especially when you consider that many of these have traditionally been used as civil defense refuge centers during hurricanes and some such. Ponder that for a minute....

dms3611 · Sep 22, 2003

Aftershocks still rolling this afternoon.....

....up in Saballo....went up to see the tunnel between Santiago and POP...man, if that tunnel ends up with problems you are talking about MAJOR commercial headaches...they did close down the road for awhile to trucks in order to look for visable signs of weakness. Also, if I am not mistaken, the tourist road between POP and Santiago also sustained damage and either was closed or may still be closed to traffic...however, I did not go up to see.

Agree with AZB however...the larger buildings were definitely affected. Free zone buildings/businesses all closed down to inspect for damage.

Word on the street has it that AZB was in tears when they shut down Golds Gym for the day....he has been hitting the weights hard and is getting "ripped".

Best, Dave

Peter & Alex · Sep 22, 2003

Heard from a local friend that the Carreterra Turistica from POP to Santiago was closed due to a large crack across the road surface somewhere. They were not letting vehicles go up there.

pasha · Sep 22, 2003

I'm no civil engineer, but..... to an untrained eye from a couple of those photos posted by XR/T it looks like building standards aren't all that hot down there. In one it looks as if the concrete simply spauled or crumbled off the upright rebar. They been using beach sand in the wet mix? Whole walls separating and leaving 1' gaps? Yep, I'd be pretty worried about multi story buildings with concrete floors and roofs.

Best, P

Dolores1 · Sep 22, 2003

The building standards are good. The problem is with engineers that cut corners. I think everyone would like to hear of some accountability from the engineers that built the public schools that cracked.

Ken · Sep 22, 2003

Main highway to Santiago must be open, or was open. My wife left for Santiago this morning on 8;20 bus and service normal at that time.

dms3611 · Sep 22, 2003

Ken...main road to POP is open....

....but, like I said, some engineers are worried about the tunnel....and they did close the road to trucks this morning while they did a visual inspection. My point was that if something caused the tunnel to close then we would be talking about a serious problem for business commerce between the two cities.

Best, Dave

Minni · Sep 22, 2003

Worried, need some info

Can anyone give me some input? Have a good friend in Puerto Plata and haven't been able to get through. Does anyone know the status of the phone lines? Saw the damage of the city on the news here in Miami and am concerned. Also do you guys know the extent of the damage in the Riu complex?

Any info would be great!

Thanks,
Minni

Peter & Alex · Sep 22, 2003

Dolores,
Building standards? They are not good up here on the North Coast! I've built all over the world for the last 40 years and the standards here are abyssmal. Maybe the bigger construction companies do a better job but when was the last time you saw a simple poker vibrator being used on a concrete pour? And when was the last time you saw any form of concrete curing?
I'm a civil engineer and am always interested in building sites but so far all I've seen is hand mixing of concrete (badly), (occassional concrete pump from a ready mix company for the odd roof), manual labour shovelling the stuff into place and the cement matrix being left behind on the scaffold platforms, leaving a rather poorly graded concrete mix being placed. They strip the poorly constructed shuttering the next day and then "bag" up all the voids with poor quality cement mortar. Result? Very poor quality construction!
The big problem is, that to do it properly costs a lot of money and the end-user/client doesn't like that either. Add in the cutting corners element, bad sand, etc., etc. and you've got really poor quality.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that things will change by our posting comments but to employ a competent and expensive professional Engineer to ensure that everything is perfect would greatly extend construction times and put the cost out of the reach of most clients. Especially if there were earthquake zone building regulations in place, then it gets really costly!
I will admit that after todays event I'm surprised that any buildings are still standing - even my own, and I supervised that, until I realised that if I stopped banging my head against the wall the pain would stop!! We had a good engineer and some good tradesmen, but they still do it their way!!

Adrian Bye · Sep 22, 2003

While I recognize the importance of good building design (I lived for 3 years in the SF bay area, waiting for "the big one"), I question how much it matters here.

The last big quake was 50 years ago. For the size of the one from last night, there really was very little damage.

I'd say that 50 years between major earthquakes is a pretty good record, and not worth spending the extra money on better buildings and more expensive design. I am willing to bet that there would would be far greater benefit if the money is spent on other health & poverty related issues.

With that said, it doesn't make it any less scary when your room is rocking like a boat at 1am.

Adrian

pasha · Sep 23, 2003

Have concluded that..... this thread has [1] all the makings of a religious, pre-ordained philosophy debate ["...it was written and imutable" so just lay back and enjoy it] [2] that standards are in fact crapola [3] building inspectors, if they exist, are asleep at the switch and [4] this may be a GREAT time to buy property.

Question for Peter/Alex and anyone else who might have an idea: Do you think they'll try to "fix" some of those damaged structures, or condemn and raze?

Best, P

KenoshaChris · Sep 23, 2003

I must reiterate. Where the hell is His Baldness? Over in the middle east begging for cinco pesos? He should have had his sorry ass in his country by now. Hell, if Hammas took him hostage nobody would pay the ransom. Then again, they'd realize what a self centered idiot he is and set him free.

Peter & Alex · Sep 23, 2003

Pasha,
Depends on the degree of damage, but in reality I believe that many will jusy bodge up the defects as that will be little or no difference to the way in which they were originally built. But what an opportunity to raze them to the ground, rebuild and then charge higher rents?
Peter (of Peter & Alex)

Adrian Bye · Sep 23, 2003

Per buying property: it took a while, but a few months after the quake in SF in 1989, I think real estate prices dropped around 30%. I'm not 100% sure of the exact percentage, perhaps someone can confirm?

The SF quake had more impact than this one though.

Adrian

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