SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Thousands of buildings have collapsed in the aftermath of Turkey's magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes. But what would a series of similar quakes mean for the Bay Area?
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The economic consequences would be in the hundreds of billions, close to a quarter of the buildings would be compromised. "I think everybody would be very disappointed with how badly our buildings have performed," said Steve Porter, Catastrophic Loss Reduction Chief Engineer.
It wouldn't be like what we're seeing in Turkey, but Porter explained that some buildings in the Bay Area, especially a category of steel high rise buildings constructed between the 1960s and 1994, would be especially vulnerable.
"The Northridge earthquake showed us that these welds are far more brittle than we thought they were and they all have to be fixed, or at least many of the welds have to be fixed and we haven't done it," Porter said.
According to the engineer, many of these buildings are in San Francisco. "It is quite conceivable that one or more high rise buildings in downtown San Francisco would collapse in an earthquake like the one that they just had in Turkey," he estimated.
Porter said that the fix for these specific buildings is expensive, but the economic consequences of not fixing them would be "catastrophic."
Even if the buildings don't collapse, Porter estimated that it would force the evacuation of surrounding buildings for blocks. He urged that this is a fix that requires attention and political pressure.
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