SEATTLE - After a nine day trip to the devastated Tohoku region of Japan, members of the Structural Engineers Association of Washington are preparing to share what they've learned about quake and tsunami preparedness.
The most important takeaway was that retrofitting works, said Mark Pierepiekarz of MRP Engineering of Bellevue. He used the Sendai airport as an example. Five years earlier, its suspended ceiling had been damaged by a quake. The building was reinforced with diagonal cross beams, allowing the airport to survive the March 2011 quake.
Pierepiekarz says the same can be said for retrofitted bridges and train tracks in Japan, which by and large survied the shaking. The only part of the Bullet Train tracks that was damaged was the part that had yet to be retrofitted.
Pierepiekarz says when it comes to tsunami preparedness, the seawall at Minamisanriku proved insufficient to hold the water back. More successful, he says, was having multi story, well built buildings that people could run to for safety. "One thought is to build protected, resilient high rise structures throughout the city that can serve as shelters," says Pierepiekarz. He shows a photo of a school building in Arahama near Sendai that served as a high ground. The Sendai airport was also a high ground and sheltered hundreds of people from the tsunami.
A high building would work well with the Washington coast because limited road access. People would get caught in the traffic, but they could run to a high building. That coupled with annual evacuation drills would go a long way to save lives.
"The Japanese had 20 minutes or so from the time the sirens started blaring and the tsunamis arrived," said Pierepiekarz. "That's the time to evacuate and get to someplace high."
Technical Briefing on Japan 2011 Earthquake
Structural Engineers Association of Washington
Wednesday June 15, 2011
4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
University of Washington Kane Hall Room 120
UW Students $15
SEAW/AIA Members $45
Non Members $60
Info: seaw@seaw.org
To add a comment, please register or login.