Thousands of Utah children could go to school in buildings that could collapse in the aftermath of an earthquake, and officials have known this for decades.

Last year’s Magna earthquake should awaken Utah’s leaders. We need to act now to avoid the worst later.

(Francisco Cjulseth | Salt Lake Tribune) Robert Jerk.

| April 7, 2021, 12:19 pm

It’s hard to imagine sending children to school in a building with faulty wires or asbestos in the walls, or a fire hazard. We will not do that.

But every day, kids in Utah – we don’t know exactly how many – attend classes in buildings ill-equipped to withstand the earthquake we know is in our future. And we’ve been doing it not for a year or two or five, but for decades.

Some areas, the ones with the money to do so, have given up on the problem, restoring some of the old schools, and replacing others entirely. But as my colleague Courtney Tanner reported last week, experts estimate that as many as 80 to 100 schools in Utah may not be able to withstand a major earthquake.

Several schools were damaged, some of them significant, in last year’s magnitude 5.7 earthquake, which had its epicenter in Magna. It rained bricks at West Lake STEM Junior High in Taylorsville in the entrance, leaving a pile of rubble inside the front doors.

Fortunately, due to the pandemic, there were no students in the school and no one was injured, but it is easy to imagine how it could have ended differently. The school will not reopen.

Years ago, I wrote about the efforts of Representative Larry Wiley, who was a building inspector, at least to get the state to inventory its buildings and identify those at high risk. And every year, he’d come out frustrated because if the state knew which buildings were dangerous, there could be liability if they collapsed.

Back in 1995, the Utah Earthquake Safety Commission repeatedly warned of deficiencies in schools.

In 2006, the Utah Geological Survey warned that there were hundreds of schools that did not conform to earthquake codes.

In 2008, the Earthquake Commission released another report, and then another in 2011, that found 77 schools out of 128 visually inspected pose potential hazards. The commission’s most recent report came in 2016.

“This is not a secret.” Jessica Chappelle, a committee member, told Tanner, “I don’t know what it takes to trigger some kind of response to that.” “How do we stop asking children to go to school in these insecure buildings? Which buildings can you collapse on? These buildings that can kill them? “

We were fortunate that the worst did not happen. We felt good about ourselves too, and we bet the children’s lives will wait, or the earthquake won’t come or the buildings will withstand the vibrations.

Last year’s Magna earthquake should awaken Utah’s leaders. We need to act now to avoid the worst later – and it simply can’t be left to the interrupts.

There are federal and provincial scholarships available. In 2011 and 2013, Murray School District received three risk mitigation grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency totaling $ 2.9 million combined with $ 4 million in district funds to modify 10 schools identified as needing upgrades.

The Murray Schools successfully passed last year’s Magna earthquake without damage, and performed much better than schools of similar ages and design that had not been refurbished.

There may be more federal money coming on Utah. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure blueprint proposes to spend $ 100 billion nationally on building new schools and renovating existing buildings.

But there is a role for the state as well, and Utah could follow a potential model.

In 2006, California implemented a $ 200 million statewide earthquake mitigation program, enabling schools – particularly those with limited financial resources – to apply for matching grants to modify, retrofit, and in some cases rebuild schools to mitigate risk Earthquakes.

Utah likely won’t need to spend $ 200 million on renovations to help areas struggling for funding make the necessary improvements, and child safety in schools should not be reduced to the haves and have-nots.

In the last session, the legislature had $ 1.3 billion in one-time funds (the type of revenue that is typically spent on buildings and equipment purchases that can be spent on rehabilitating schools).

If lawmakers invested a fraction of that money over a few years, it could make a huge difference between students emerging from the next major earthquake or falling walls around them.

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