A webinar discusses the importance of making Quake VI homes safe

A ‘sturdy house’ in Guanica, Puerto Rico, is built on pillars. The January 6, 2020 screenshot taken from the webinar shows minimal damage from the earthquake. (Screenshot of a presentation by Jose A. Martinez)

Earthquakes are not strange to the US Virgin Islands. If an earthquake strikes the region today, can our buildings withstand the impacts?

In 2020, multiple earthquakes rocked Puerto Rico, showing the devastating impact of seismic force on homes and buildings. A webinar given by the USVI Risk Mitigation Plan Team demonstrated the importance of properly building or retrofitting.

Earthquake usually occurs when different tectonic plates move against each other. Masonry is the typical building material in the Virgin Islands, with supporting structures made of blocks and wood. Many of the surviving ancient structures are made of stone with concrete.

“There are all kinds of different structures that we have in the Virgin Islands that have the potential to collapse completely during an earthquake,” said Gregg Gwanyl, a coastal and ocean engineer and civil engineer.

Another issue specifically in St. Thomas and St. John is the hilly terrain with many homes built on the sides of the cliffs.

A house in Guanica, Puerto Rico, collapses after the January 2020 earthquake (Screenshot of a presentation by Jose A. Martinez)

Jose A. Martinez, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez, said that since 1985 he has studied sites on the island affected by earthquakes, and learned the lessons they must offer. His presentation illustrated examples of various structural details that make some buildings more susceptible to earthquake damage and others more resilient. One example of this is “homes on stilts,” which are homes that can be raised with concrete piles or poles.

“It is very common to find homes on stilts or columns in Puerto Rico,” Martinez said. Some homes are built on stilts or pillars in the event of a tsunami, allowing the owner to use the space below as a garage.

But while these buildings were able to withstand floods or tidal waves, the seismic force during the earthquake caused many of the durable houses to collapse.

Richard Clark, senior lecturer in civil and environmental engineering at the University of the West Indies, Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, said bad things happen to homes during earthquakes because of a “violation of fundamentals.”

Plasticity, which is the ability of a material to bend without breaking, is a major factor in a building’s ability to survive an earthquake. Instead of trying to build something so strong, that can withstand the motion of the earth, builders should use materials that “vibrate” along with a vibrating floor.

He said, “Try to take a match and bend it into a paper clip.” “The extended side load resistance system – or LLRS – is more expensive than the LLRS less ductile system but provides better performance in the event of an overload.”

Clark said that some of the typical challenges in the Caribbean that can be found in constructing steel buildings are inadequate types of beams and columns, sizes of girders or columns are too small, and connections have incorrect parts and proportions, among other things.

A person building a concrete structure may encounter inappropriate wall positions, pillar frames not suitable for storefronts, or inappropriate column framing for parking access. In construction, you can find buildings with weak blocks, improper framing for access to parking lots, horizontal reinforcing bars at the joints of the blocks or missing rebar.

The full webinar with more information on building engineering for earthquakes is available below.

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