In the wake of a devastating earthquake which rocked the Caribbean island of Haiti last Tuesday, Dominica’s government is focusing on a solid building code which will ensure that buildings here are less susceptible to collapse.
“We have a building code, it is mostly directed at making our buildings hurricane-proof. We are paying some attention to making our buildings less prone to collapse from earthquakes, but making them earthquake-proof requires tremendous technology and is expensive,” Minister for Immigration, National Security, and Labour Charles Savarin said recently.
“Countries such as Japan, California and a number of others in the world which are earthquake-prone have implemented very strict building codes, which will minimize the damage and loss of life. It will reduce the collapse of buildings. If your buildings are earthquake-proof, or at least be able to withstand earthquakes of a certain magnitude, then destruction and loss of life could be minimized,” Savarin noted.
According to the government minister, government will seek to increase the information and awareness of the population, while working with experts in that regard.
“What we can seek to do, with the assistance of the Seismic Research Unit in Trinidad, is to monitor and to have as much equipment as possible to be able to identify the nature of the earthquake. It will help us to understand what we can expect in that regard. We could increase information and awareness of the population as to the possibility of an earthquake and the destruction which follows.” he said.
Thousands of Haitian residents lost their lives when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near the country’s capital Port-au-Prince.
Note: For years I’ve been talking about preparedness in the event of a massive earthquake like the one which hit Haiti. It would appear that the small man’s voice has no significance,until we are close to the point of massive destruction, and even up to that time our voices are still not important.
Like someone correctly mentioned in their comments,it is time for the authorities to put in place programs whereby the general public are well educated about disasters as such.Too late shall be the cry.
I just was so surprised to see so many collapsed buildings and did a search on line and found this article. I would have bet money that’s why it was so bad.
I went through basic training in 1966 at Ft. Ord CA. and one of my friends was from Haiti and his father was Minister of something very high up. He told me lots of things about Haiti and I remember he was very critical of things in his country. He father was murdered and he had to take emergency leave to go to the funeral.
He told me how lots of people in Haiti we on the “take” and turmoil was everyday thing. I hope when they level it they take care to build smart. I am sure they will. US always helps everybody but when we need help. Millions in donation billions in taxes. Why don’t we just make them a territory like V.I. and Porto Rico? At least we could get man power and taxes back out the deal.
look it ! reactivism to the core demonstrated in all aspects. we have beeen a real reactive country as against a proactive country. Trust me, if some other form is disaster were to strick one would hear all kinds of talk bout dis and dat. Reactivism is demonstrated in many ways in the west indies> When will caribbean people see the light
@ Mouth of the South: You sound like one of those conspiracy theorists. Make yr point relevant my brother. Are you trying to say that the Illuminati/New World Order actually brought on the earthquake in Haiti? Is that what you’re saying??
I don’t know if is too much t.v. you watching. But please tell me what on God’s green earth does that have to do with anything in Haiti?
I suppose the whole global warming issue is the fault of the illuminati too?
Alot of issues have been raised specifically those mentioned by MOUTH IN THE SOUTH,n quite agree with them.Many people tend to blame Haiti’s quake on there frequently known evil practices…Realistically a lot of things we do are evil….The USA has a lot of evil as well , and alot of rap artist like Jayz are also agents of the devil yet we blast his music with great pleasure…not knowin that we open ourselves to spirits……Even when we use jays to after 6 pm infont our door, hang horse shoe over our door, scisorrs under the pillow. puttin red lavender in our kids scalp to pass common entrance’ and wishin people bad,,,,,,these are all evil acts. As a woman of God i believe that all these things are jus revelations from the Bible.In the book of Revelation the Bible clearly explains that there will be wars,earthquakes , famine,etc… in the last days.We as a people should look at these disasters as an opportunity to know who God really is.Man always make plans and they never consider the will of God..Tomorow is not yours.Your very life tha u live belongs to God.(The father of Christ Jesus, not the so called god they put on the US dollar bill.)
Some may say how will a God of love make something so terrible happen to his people…..well some times God has to allow certain thingz to happen so that his people can surrender to him.No one can save the Haitian but God. If they put their trust in God then they will get past this….
It is written IF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME WOULD HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND TURN AWAY FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS………………
Many thingz we do offend God.Look at the days of Noah…God had to send a flood .because the people were livin their lives uselessly and forsaked God.The same for Sodom and Gomaoorah.Right now lesbianism and male homos are becomin the norm…they even allow gay marriages.I don t care wot people say.This is nastiness!.This is an abomination…!Wen God declears some thing ITS SHALL SURELY COME TO PASS..THE WORD OF GOD DOES NOT LIE..AND HIS WORD IS THE SAME TODAY , YESTERDAY , AND FOREVER….SO THINK ABOUT THAT.Things are gonna be worse…more is yet to come…
People now is the time to surrender to Christ Jesus…The only thing that can save us is the grace of God!Now is the time to establish a relationship with JESUS!If you already have that relationship then strengthen it.
I recommend building codes, do we have a disaster plan in place, who is responsible for what.
mouth of the south…
i understand totally what you saying, although i think you should have elaborated on the topic more. Dont be afraid to say what is truth, besides they will not harm you because the have gone to great length making sure people cant see the truth. Using education(false) and religion to lie and keep us in mental slavery, we wouldnt know the truth even if they beat it into us. So they wont feel threatened by you.
Haiti isnt evil like we were told, haiti is a victim of great evil, Brought about by france and her allies…
Mr Savarin is wrong. There is no such thing as” earthquake -proof” structures. Most egineering effort is devoted to building “eartquake resistant” structures, meaning that the design criteria establishes points of progressive structural failure during which time occupants may escape injury before collapse failure occurs within a region of known seismic activity. However, Mr Savarin is correct in highlighting the increased cost to retrofit existing structures to meet Level 3 zone requirements (on a scale of 1 to 5). To make a structure earthquake-proof, the walls of the building would be as thick as that of the containment structure of a nuclear power plant.
In all likelihood, the majority of structures which will be affected by an earthquake or hurricane in the next twenty years are already built and occupied. This limits disaster mitigation to that of evacuation. In many cases, depending upon the “index of occupancy’, the parameters for design for wind loads exceeding 120 mph are more rigorous than for 7.0 Richter temblor except at the epicenter.
I agree that light construction is sometimes mistaken for weak construction; and in California, partition walls and roofs of residential structures are designed from lightweight materials. Flexibility is an envied material property for resisting the 3-dimensional forces of earthquakes, that’s why so many shack-like wooden structures simply vibrate and return to pre-shake posture after an earthquake. But wood is expensive for large structures and joint connections of required rigidity might not easily be achieved.
To True Dominican:
You seem to be suggesting that the plywood shacks can’t stand a hurricane therefore they can’t stand an earthquake.
I think people who live in the traditional wooden Dominica type shack have a better chance of surviving an earthquake than those in modern concrete buildings.
During an earthquake it is the very heavy concrete and steel structures that is a threat to human life. Some time ago I was looking at a concrete house elevated high above the ground on concrete legs perched on the side of a hill and immediately thought that it was the wrong type of construction for Dominica. I put my concerns in writing and sent it to some government department but did not receive a reply.
The thing is that concrete is a very brittle and heavy kind of material and can easily snap under sudden rapid vibration. Then there are heavy beams which get dialoged from their places of rest and so on. There is a very interesting branch of mathematics and physics concerning vibrations and waves that people in the scientific field use to model and understand seismic waves(earthquakes cause waves to develop). The Government,s ‘state of the art’ college could be a great help here.
Mr. Savarin is right when he suggests that there are ways to design buildings that are better suited to withstand earthquakes. One of the important rules is to avoid the construction of, even moderately, tall buildings. In places like Japan and the United States,particularly Japan, they have to build high to accommodate a relatively large population. In Japan population is quite dense. Dominica has no such problem of population density. If you look at the pictures from Haiti you will see the main damage is in areas of high population and construction density. Of course there are other dangers, not only from buildings.
There is large amount of scientific research aimed at finding ways of making buildings earthquake proof. However, I think Mr. Savarin is wrong when he says that the whole thing is expensive. He has omitted to explain that the building regulations in Japan and California is based on scientific research. Because Dominica is not a scientific society we are not able to use that research for ourselves – we have no access to it. This situation of not being a knowledge based society is something we have in common with all poor and powerless societies on the planet. In reality we should have our own people doing research for us. They would attend all the scientific conferences and bring back knowledge to help us.
Another thing is, if we consult foreign experts, who is going to supervise their work to ensure that their methods are suitable for Dominica? How will we know the buildings are good enough? I would like us to take the responsibility to do the bulk of the thinking ourselves. It might be the case that we can come up with our own solution to this problem with minimal input from foreign ‘experts’.
It is always going to cost large sums of money if we want other people to think for us.
My question is what has the government learnt if anything from the Haitian disaster? Has the government ministers along with the office of Disaster Management, the geologists, the health, emergency, police and Red Cross officials sat down and ensured that in the even that a natural disaster faces DOminica, that we are prepared to deal with the aftermath?
In Haiti, tens of thousands die each day because of the inability to obtain medical supplies, food and water. Is our government agencies prepared? Is there a plan of action formulated? Is there some process thought out which will ensure that after disaster strikes there is a systematic approach to bring aid to the communities?
If not, its time to get on board. It is time to meet and these meetings need to include persons in every community who can come togther and form a tight network to approach disaster with minimum loss of life…..Infrastructure….we can always build again>>>>not lives
It should not have to take a disaster such as this for us to think about those things.
I would be worried more about landslides in dominica in the event of a large earthquake more than anything else. The ministry, the cathedrall and all such old churches needs to be rebuilt or relocated all the secondary and primary schools need to be reinforced or rebuilt and the main hospitals. These are the major building where many citizen gather at any one time.
The SRU will have to identify where all the major fault lines run in dominica what kind of fault how deep and there characteristics when moved. Then look at settlement along those faults and recommend necessary action. By the way 90% of that information is already available because i have seen research done on this years ago.
Haiti had not seen an earthquke in 200yrs. Dominica had not seen a volcanoe in over 200yrs. Of the 13 or so Active volcanoes in the caribbean Dominica has 9. The information is there but nobody pays attention to it untill it happens. Let that be somthing to think about
Remember Port Royal in Jamaica sank due to an earthquake more than 200 years ago. It is part of the same fault that run through haiti. Parts of Trinidad have also been afected in the past.
The fact is Volcanoes and Earthqukes are what built our beautifull region (Plate tectonics) and the Caribbean is rated as one of the most dangerous areas in the world for these activities. The problem is it has been quiet for a long time and the scientific community is just waiting for the big one. It is thought to be due.
All the tremores we have been getting from Haiti to Dominica to 5.6 in venezuela last week is as aresult of the Caribbean plate moving.
Earthquakes will remain unpredictable for a long time so we just have to be better prepared. I think there are many resourcefull Dominicans who can help assess the potential dangers and implement some feasible but effective measures to soften the damage in the event of an earthquke or volcanoe.
An integral part of our preparedness should also be education of our populace. What to do in the event of an earthquake. During and after. Unlike hurricanes earthquakes(the big one) can come with zero warning. Earthquake education should be an ongoing year round thing. I know government probably doesn’t want to alarm the public unduly, but we in Dominica have to come to grips with reality. It’s time we start having radio and television spots educating people what to do in the event of an earthquake. Also earthquake drills in schools and public buildings.
And I know we have a disaster preparedness department in Dominica. However that too is more geared at hurricanes and volcanic eruptions where we usually have the “luxury” of preparation. A sudden major tectonic earthquake is another matter. There is almost no warning. I appreciate that we have limited resources. But sill we need to have the institutional and logistical measures in place to tackle the AFTERMATH of a catastrophic earthquake. At least to help ourselves until outside help can arrive.
for those that saying haiti is so evil,,,,, i want ya’ll to look closely to the u.s dollar bill n try to explain the signs that ya’ll see,,,, the eye over the pyramid,,, wat does it all mean,,,lol THEM STUFF OVER ALLU HEAD,,,, I SUGGEST YA’LL EDUCATE ALLU SELVES,,,, but i’ll give a lil info o,k,,,,,,, the u.s.a jus as most first world countries are run by the illuminati yes those tupac use to warn us about,,, but they killed him n put it on a fellow rapper ( n we all know the story),,, the freemasons,, , they run shit n affect our lives daily,,,, GOD the father of christ is banned in all schools n public domains but yet on the dollar bill has IN GOD WE TRUST my people who is the god they talking bout,,,, DOH FOOL UR SELF IS NOT THE ONE IN D BIBLE OKAY,,,,, when u enter new york wat first historic structure u see,,,, THE STATUE OF LIBERTY hhhhmmmm n wat does she have in her hand,,,,, the torch of course n a book,,,,BUT INTERESTINGLY SHE’S LOOKING NORTH EAST TOWARDS FRANCE LOL,,,,, WELL WELL IRONICALLY FRANCE HAVE THE EXACT SAME STATUE AND U GUESSED IT LOOKING TOWARDS NEW YORK,,,, WAT DOES IT ALL MEAN,,,, I CAN’T DISCUSS DAT DERE,,,, I LOVE MY LIFE,,,, BESIDES I’M AT HOME TYPING DAT,,,,,,THE I.D CAN BE TRACED,,,, but u get d whole idea,,,, the torch represents the light of darkness,,,,, yes a day is coming when the new world order will take over the world please don’t be surprised the bible warned us already,,,,, N ALLU LOVE RIHANNA HHHMMM I LOVE HER TOO WII,,,, BUT IN ‘RUN THIS TOWN’ VIDEO WITH JAY Z ,,,, SHE’S SHOWING THE SAME SIGN LIKE THE STATUE IN THE BEGINNING,,,, HOLDIN UP A TORCH N SAYIN SUCH CHORUS
Feel it comin’ in the air (THE NEW ORDER COMIN SOON)
and the screams from everywhere (PEOPLE SCREAMIN FOR HELP?? BUT WHY WOULD THEY!!!)
I’m addicted to the thrill
It’s a dangerous love affair (SHE KNOWS IT DANGEROUS BUT CAN’T DO WITHOUT IT)
Can’t be scared when it goes down (DAMN SUMTHING BAD BOUT TO HAPPEN,, BUT WAT??)
Got a problem, tell me now (SPEAK NOW CAUSE LATER WILL BE TO LATE)
Only thing that’s on my mind (SHE DON’T CARE WAT HAPPENS)
Is who’s gonna run this town tonight… (ITS ALL ABOUT WHO’S IN CONTROL)
Is who’s gonna run this town tonight…
We gonna run this town (WHO’S THE WE)
NOW I AINT JUS A GIMMICK I KNOW WAT I’M SAYIN,,,, I’M A FAN OF HIPHOP BUT MUSIC HAS BEEN A VEHICLE USED TO PUSH THE ILLUMINATI IDEALS MORE SO RAP,,,, N I RAP ALSO BUT THE TRUTH IS TRUTH BUT B4 U SAY OH I’M THIS N THAT,,,, JUS CHECK OUT THIS LINK OF MY BOY JAY Z http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=3073
THE VIDEO WHICH AIRED ON NEW YEARS DAY,,,LOL REAL SCARY TO THINK OF IT,,,, ON TO THE NEXT ONE
THERE’S ALOT OF STUFF GOIN DOWN,,, N HAITI’S JUS A LIL PUZZLE IN THE MIX SEEN,,,, THERE ALOT OF THINGS WE DONT UNDERSTAND,,,, I CAN’T OR WON’T GIVE OUT TOO MUCH BUT WE GOTTA THINK OURSELVES,,,, N REALISE THAT THERE’S SOME THINGS WE’LL NEVER COME TO GRASP WITH,,,,, BUT IF U WANNA GET EDUCATED THEN I SUGGEST U GET EDUCATED ON THINGS AMONG US!!!!!!
Thats a great idea… Just dont forget about it within the next couple months cuz the threat will always be there..
How about a code for accidents (God forbid) for a plane crash, cruise ship/ ferry incident? …let’s not forget about the 1998 plance crash.. There’s a couple lessons we should have learnt there as well.
The Government should take the lead on that. Them plywood shaks they building all around Dominica are not even hurricane proof.
So Mr Minister what you talking about.
Charles Savarin talks of earthquake-proof buildings. Does he have anyone to review his statements before expanding on issues that require the utmost lucidity? If one can predict the epicenter of any earthquake, no construction would be allowed in the domain.
yeh! as usual, is only now all you interested in building code?! all those derelict, unsightly buildings in Roseau supposed to fall under that same building code. building code is not just to make buildings safe when u building them. it also means that any building that is deemed unsafe/hazardous should be torn down.