How an “ earthquake nut ” prompted a school district in Utah to make all of its buildings safer

A father of five daughters was anxious about attending classes in the old East High Building.

(Lynn R. Johnson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Standing on the roof of New Eastern High School, then principal Kay Peterson, framed in the window to the left, watched crews tear down the old school’s west wall in August 1996. The school was one of the first schools in Salt Lake City School District reconstructed to be earthquake safe.

| March 28, 2021, 12:00 pm

When John Dibble first raised his seismic safety concerns in Salt Lake City schools, a member of the county board quickly dismissed it as a “type of earthquake.”

“It was during this public meeting,” he recalled, laughing. “I got up to talk during the open mic part, and they just started calling me all kinds of names and acting like I was a crazy killer.”

It was in 1983, when Dibble said that much of Utah had not considered preparing for an earthquake. But it was on top of dad’s interests with five daughters attending classes in the area.

Dibble had recently attended a parent-teacher night for one of his daughters in the old East High Building. The event was in the basement of what was then four stories of unreinforced bricks, meaning that there was no steel supporting the structure, and it was completed in 1914. Dibble said he was feeling terrible sitting there, like what kind of vibration would fall The school is as if it were a tower of toys.

He was concerned that teachers and students – including his daughters – would be buried.

So Dibel began lobbying for the area to assess its buildings and carry out upgrades as needed. He formed committees and published the results of seismic studies in the area and urged more parents to participate. He’s got posters printed. And knock on the doors. He even threatened to file a lawsuit at some point.

He jokes that he might have gotten a little excited, after all.

In the end, though, he is widely credited with stimulating the Salt Lake City School District to address all 40 school buildings either through retrofits or rebuilding to make them safe during an earthquake.

The district became the first district in the state to do so. It is now considered one of the safest places in the country.

“That was the motivation for going to the first school board meeting,” said Dibble.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) John Dibble in his food and water storage area in 2010.

After years of work, the district finished retrofits to make each school earthquake-proof in 2012. Then, in the fall of 2019, the district completed rebuilding the last two that had to be demolished – Edison Elementary and Medolark Elementary School.

The only building still on the list is now the county office, at 440 E. 100 South, district spokeswoman Yandari Chatwin said. The Board of Education has reviewed plans to rebuild this structure, and the hope is that construction, which has been delayed a bit by the pandemic, will begin sometime this year.

Efforts are making Salt Lake City School District stand out in Utah, as there has been little guidance or funding from state leaders to improve seismic safety from stage K-12, even as seismologists warn of a major earthquake that will hit Utah at some point along More than 217 miles of fault lines are here.

Chatwin said it wasn’t easy for Salt Lake City, which houses one of the state’s most diverse student bodies, to come up with the money. Because of the cost, about $ 500 million in total for the upgrades, the county ended up with 25 years to complete the repairs.

He was able to pay for the work with two bonds approved by the voter – approved in 1993 and 1999 – and also through provident funds.

Divya Chandrasekhar, assistant professor in the Department of Town and Capital Planning at the University of Utah, says improving seismic safety should not be left to counties to find out. She would like to see the country progress.

“School districts often have a lot of competing priorities, and it’s hard to know what to spend the money on,” she said. “With earthquakes, you’re sitting on something that can kill a lot of your student body. It’s a silent threat. And we should all make that a priority.”

Salt Lake City’s focus has paid off. When a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Magna a year ago, it was the only area in Salt Lake County to report no damage.

The adjacent valleys, Murray and Jordan – which also prioritized seismic safety – had some crumbling cracks and crusts. The Granite School District maintained the most, as West Lake STEM Junior High ended up denouncing.

Chatwin added that although there were no students in class that day due to the pandemic, there were some school staff there. “It was definitely reassuring to know that these school buildings are earthquake safe,” she said.

Dibble recalls that the big wake-up call for Salt Lake City was when San Francisco was hit by an earthquake during the World Championships in 1989 – six years after the school’s first board meeting.

He remembers being seated at another school board meeting that night, riding the secretary at a TV broadcasting the news. Board members looked at live footage of a collapsed California highway.

“This is the East,” I said. “This is what will happen at Highland High School,” said Dibble.

The county evaluated both buildings and found them to be “very dangerous buildings.” It has been estimated that about 50% of students die if the Earth is shaken by an earthquake of magnitude 6 or greater.

The area began demolishing and rebuilding East High in 1996.

Two of Debel’s five daughters graduated after taking lessons in the old building. Two more have finished high school while the new school was under construction. And his youngest daughter completed her last year at the new school.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) East High pictured on Thursday, May 1, 2014.

.

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos