Sunday, September 23, 2012

What happened in Haiti was due to the use of unenforced concrete in buildings.

The GeoEye-1 satellite (click here for NASA analysis) (a commercial satellite) captured these images of earthquake damage in the densely populated neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 13, 2010. Geometric shapes define structures that appear undamaged from above, but this appearance may be deceptive. The buildings may be damaged under an intact roof. Other homes and other structures have clearly been destroyed entirely, a mass of rubble spilling in a tangled mass across broad sections of the image. According to the United Nations, at least 10 percent of homes in Port-au-Prince were destroyed when a massive 7.0 earthquake shook the city on January 12, 2010....

Rubble is what is left from earthquakes when concrete / cement is viewed as a strong 'stone.' Concrete is not stone. Concrete is sand. 

By William Booth
Washington Post Foreign Service 
Sunday, March 28, 2010
As Haitians (click here) deal with the psychological aftershocks of the devastating earthquake, city dwellers here -- prominent and poor alike -- confess they continue to harbor deep anxieties about entering buildings constructed of concrete....