Steel in the News
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Posted by Alison Trost on January 14, 2011 at 8:45 AM.
This masonry in-fill wall at the end of this steel framed warehouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, collapsed in the January 12, 2010, earthquake. And as with most of the steel-framed buildings on the island, the steel held up just fine. When the rubble was cleared away, the warehouse walls were reconstructed using metal panels in place of the toppled masonry. Click on the photo to see how the repaired structure looked in August 2010. Photos: Steven Baldridge, Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering, Inc.
A year ago, on January 12, the Caribbean island nation of Haiti was struck by a significant earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. There was widespread destruction, with many of the structures on the island collapsing in the initial earthquake and the more than 30 aftershocks that followed. Although there are relatively few steel-framed structures in Haiti, those that are there survived the earthquake without significant damage.
To read one report from the International Code Council on the performance of various buildings during the Haitian earthquake, click here.
For an interesting 4-minute video highlighting the efforts of structural engineering firm Miyamoto International and showing the situation in Haiti one year after the earthquake, click here.
