The director of the Seismological Institute of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Ramón Delanoy, warns that there is always the possibility that the Dominican Republic could be affected by a high intensity earthquake. Several fault lines cross the Dominican Republic.
On the other hand, the coordinator of the Master of Science in Structural and Earthquake Resistant Engineering at the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (Intec), engineer Norberto Rojas says that all structures designed and built before 2011 should be inspected. He said after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the local seismic code was amended. He says constructions that meet the new 2011 building code should be safe in a strong earthquake.
Rojas explained in an interview with El Dia newspaper that the earthquake in Haiti was 7.1, with a depth of 10 kilometers. He says that what caused the most damage in Haiti was not the tremor itself, but the poor quality of construction. He said in Haiti there was not a building code at that time and there were many informal structures that just collapsed.
Likewise, Edwin Ruiz writes in Diario Libre that while there is a 5% possibility of a major hurricane hitting the country, there is a 2% possibility of a strong earthquake affecting the Dominican Republic. A report by the InterAmerican Development Bank has estimated damages of more than US$1.1 billion, or 1.8% of GDP could be had in case of a major earthquake.
The last major earthquake to affect the Dominican Republic was in 1946, when an 8 magnitude earthquake was felt in Samana on the northeast. An estimated 100 persons died, and another 20,000 lost their homes.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Dia
9 January 2020