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Earthquakes may close schools after the virus
Piniolas, Puerto Rico – Dozens of families flocked to an empty field in this city on the morning of January 7, dazed and frightened after a pre-dawn earthquake struck southern Puerto Rico.
Peñuelas students are expected to return to school from their winter break the following week. But in a scene repeated along the southern coast, the town’s seven schools were damaged. Another school collapsed in Guánica, 30 kilometers (19 miles) west.
Today, by government order, schools across the region remain closed, including those in this coastal city with serene waterfalls, verdant mountains, and stately trees.
More than 140 schools across the south coast remain unusable, affecting 27,000 students.
Construction experts allege that government officials ‘failure to fortify school buildings against earthquakes has caused unnecessary damage and put students’ safety at risk. Experts say that unless the government enforces its building codes, schools remain vulnerable to similar disasters in the face of future earthquakes.
“The structures are permanent, but they won’t last forever,” says Felix Rivera, chair of the committee that studies earthquakes for the Professional College of Engineers and Land Surveyors in Puerto Rico. “This is a public safety issue.”
Between late December and mid-January, Puerto Rico experienced 10 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or stronger.
The strongest was on January 7, with a magnitude of 6.4. The epicenter was Guayanela, a coastal town in the south, and it shook several nearby towns, including Penuelas. The electricity was off for days. Landslides followed. At least one person was killed and dozens were injured.
About 2,500 homes were damaged. By early February, about 40 shelters had opened across southern Puerto Rico.
Damage to the schools included cracks in the walls, dilapidated plaster, separate doors and windows, worn hallways, garages and gazebos.
“Undoubtedly, anxiety and anxiety are growing because this is about our teachers ‘workplaces and our students’ shelters,” says Elba Aponte, President of Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (Association of Teachers of Puerto Rico).
One of the main problems, Rivera says, is the “short column effect”.
Short structural columns attract more seismic force than taller ones in an earthquake, causing walls and roofs to collapse. At least one school in southern Puerto Rico – Agripina Seda School, in Guánica – has given up due to this problem.
“This is the problem we face with our schools,” Rivera says. “I’ve been warning people about this since the 1990s.”
“There is no doubt that anxiety and anxiety are increasing because this relates to the workplaces of our teachers and the shelters for our students.” Elba Aponte, president of the Maestros de Puerto Rico
Rivera says Puerto Rico’s Building Code sets strict standards and practices for design and construction. But there is no law obligating the Puerto Rican government to periodically maintain or redesign these buildings, including schools.
Rivera says that over the past two decades the government has repaired or closed more than 1,000 of the 1,500 schools in Puerto Rico. In the early 2000s, the region contained 1,515 schools; By 2018-19, that number had shrunk to around 850.
Rivera says hundreds of remaining schools have not been repaired and could fall out – especially under the shock of the earthquake.
Education Minister Eligio Hernandez admits there is a problem, but has not confirmed Rivera’s numbers.
We cannot assume that some of the arguments are correct because they have not been able to produce the research or study [the Professional College of Engineers and Land Surveyors of Puerto Rico] Conducted, “Hernandez says.
The challenge will not go away. The USGS reported that aftershocks linked to the January 7 earthquake will likely last for at least a decade.
Dozens of aftershocks have already occurred this year, and persistent tremors have halted school reforms.
“We are dealing with many emergencies simultaneously, so we have to wait for the FEMA to finish its inspection,” says Hernandez, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US government’s disaster relief bureaucracy.
Through “several emergencies”, Hernandez has been speaking about the coronavirus pandemic and Puerto Rico’s ongoing efforts to recover from two hurricanes that struck in late 2017.
Now, he adds, “The difficulty we face is that [the earth] Constantly shaking. “
At Jardines de Ponce High School in Ponce, another town on the south coast, structures have suffered cracks, and buildings that were once connected have pulled apart. The impact of the short column also caused damage, says teacher and union representative Jose Ernesto Torres.
The school has been declared unfit for use.
“It will take two months before they can fix it,” says Torres, referring to when repairs will start.
Hernandez says Puerto Rico is awaiting approval of $ 63 million in federal funds to repair schools in 14 municipalities designated as emergency areas.
“The difficulty we have is that [the earth] Still shivering. ”Eligio Hernandez, Minister of Education
He said another $ 43.8 million in federal aid would pay for portable classrooms at all schools in Guanica, Guayanela and Penuelas. The federal government has committed nearly $ 2.3 billion to restore and modernize Puerto Rico’s schools, many of which were initially hit in 2017 by Hurricane Maria.
Repairs can’t come fast enough for Tamara Delgado, whose two children are enrolled at Eduardo Neumann Gandía Primary School in Ponce.
Her kids haven’t been taking face-to-face lessons since last December. Due to the damages of the earthquake and the epidemic, her children, like students across the region, are learning roughly. Even if the coronavirus crisis subsides, students will remain out of school while the buildings wait for repairs.
Delgado says parents are receiving updates on the coronavirus, but they know little about when officials will repair and reopen school buildings.
“We were not told anything,” says Delgado.
Rivera, for his part, hopes the earthquakes this year will force the Puerto Rican government to make ongoing school maintenance a priority.
“We have to put in place stronger measures and improve auditing,” he says. Students “are important. We have to take care of them and protect them.”
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