Santo Domingo.- As high as 70% of the constructions in Dominican Republic are guaranteed for earthquake resistance norms, whereas the remaining 30% aren’t, for which they require an immediate intervention.
Engineers, Architects and Surveyors Guild (Codia) director Victor Payano said according the entity’s evaluations, “our structures represent a guarantee for the eventuality of a quake."
“Earthquakes are unpredictable, just like their magnitude. It’s correct to clarify that the existing norms which were implemented in 1979 have been adhered to and applied in our country," he said.
Payano, interviewed in the National Palace where he went to a meeting on Haiti’s reconstruction, said the 30% of the works not resistant to quakes were not supervised by the Codia professionals and instead were built ‘informally.”
Among the characteristics the engineering professionalsays a good building must have are sound structural calculations and architectonic designs.
His statements contradict his declaration of January 29, when he assured that most of the constructions in the country don’t meet the norms on design for seismic resistance, especially public works.
From: Haiti
Let’s hope the Dominican Republic (DR) will be ready to resist to any possible earthquake…Once again, the Haitian people are very thankful to their brothers and sisters from DR. Thank you for their prayers and their substantial support to the people of Haiti further to the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake and dozens of aftershocks.
I don’t want to nit-pick on the fact that some constructions in DR don’t meet the norms for seismic resistance. By any means, I don’t want anyone down the earth to experience such a devastating earthquake like the one which struck my country (Haiti) on January 12.
The Haitian people are very grateful to the Dominican people and their president. Their help and support to Haiti is a gesture of real brotherhood that must last for years, and which may boost both countries in their willingness to build a new and prosperous island.
Written by: juanb, 12 Feb 2010 8:50 AM
From: Dominican Republic
Let's hope we never find out the truth.
Just because there is paperwork saying that a building was built to code does not mean it was built to code.
From: Dominican Republic, Puerto Plata
That guy must have been working day and night together with a brigade of 10,000 assistants to assess 100% of the buildings in the country.
Funny, they didn't come to my place..
From: Dominican Republic, No Spin Zone
which 70and which 30 ......inquiring minds want to know.....and move
From: United States
Why do I have a hard time believing this?
Well, he is correct until the big one. Then in Dominican style he'll make up some other lie why there was 99% destruction. And feel no shame doing so.
Written by: zooma, 12 Feb 2010 9:55 AM
From: United States
......... and the Titanic was said to be unsinkable.
Written by: generoso, 12 Feb 2010 10:11 AM
From: Dominican Republic, United States
This is the biggest pack of lies that I have heard in a long time, the guy is backpedaling his previous statements so fast, it is not even funny. Just ask him why the US embassy denies permission to US employees of the DR embassy and consulate, to move into buildings that have a "soft" parking area beneath the building, which are most apartment buildings built in DR.
The authorities are just "hoping" that an earthquake doesn't strike us anytime soon, specially in the capital, as SDQ is not in an immediate fault line, but still very close.
The statements are just intended not to cause panic, as the truth would have us all
living in tents outside, just like the poor Haitian homeless.
From: United States
This is why when you want to show some credibility you have outside independent, and reliable sources conducting the research on anything.
We should be outsourcing our judiciary and anti-corruption groups. Lets find all the corrupt one and get them in jail.
Written by: clinker, 12 Feb 2010 10:38 AM
From: Dominican Republic
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha right
From: United States, FREEPORT, Long Island.... ((You're blind to the fact that you're blind))
I'm in The business of designing and installing siesmic sleeve penetrations and it cost alot of money. Some one that doesn't understand and not no what they are looking at would determine that a hole in a wall doesn't need these sleeves and would op not to get them just to save money(the dominican way). So, if if this doosh say 70% , he really means 10% . Its hard to believe that at the time of construction someone didn't say " Deja ese weco asi , paque van a forar ese roto con una manga, ESO CUETA PLATA y despue para la FRIA no va a ver para comprala"
Written by: xwill7, 12 Feb 2010 11:05 AM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
New construction in Santiago are pretty good... I don't know about the older stuff... I would not trust that
From: Dominican Republic
I see a lot of 'experts' refuting this article, Did you made an assessment to determine the veracity of this article?
From: United States
the big question becomes ¨Where do I live? in the 70%, or the 30%?
From: Dominican Republic
I love the odds gentlemen ! This is great news . Thanks Ateo , you were right all along . Now I can get back to building that Swiss Chalet in Cibao that Ive been dreaming of .
COOOOOOOOOOñOO
Written by: xwill7, 12 Feb 2010 11:48 AM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
with a nice cibaena next to you!
Written by: xwill7, 12 Feb 2010 11:48 AM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
there is nothing like sipping on some whiskey and watching the city of Santiago from above
From: Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Wait okay we all obviously know haiti and the dominican republic are on the same island. But those huge buildings in dr cant be built in haiti because under haiti's sefice is like a whole bunch of water and stuff there for thoee buildings would be destroyed even before they were built. How come dr is able to hold all of those humungous buildings? And 70% of your buildings can withstand earthquakes. Doesn't that depend how strong the earthquake hits? So how do you know if it can withstand earthquakes well any kinds of earthquakes?
From: Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
its suppost to be surface not sefice.
From: Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
and theres somewhere it say thoee its suppost to say those.
From: United States, Fresh Water Paradise-NY Finger Lakes
Honorable Generoso,
You didn't leave me much to add to the discussion, as I was planning on stating similarly.
Perhaps, just like they did with the constitution, they re-wrote the earthqauke resistant norms and revised requirements down to 3 on Richter Scale. The story doesn't really stipulate what earthquake level the majority of our buildings would resist.
I don't believe any of this crap. My family does a great deal of building in DR, and I heard a lot of comments about what they see. Most of these buildings probably won't survive anything above a Richter Scale 4. God help us if anything like the one in Haiti ever strikes us. Death toll could reach a million, if it's concentrated in Santo Domingo.
MJEV.
From: United States, FREEPORT, Long Island.... ((You're blind to the fact that you're blind))
Glo,
thats exactly what I'm talking about, the research is not done properly. There is a science to all of this and 90% of DR lacks the proper EDUCATION and Discipline. The number of STRUCTURES including buildings that would crumble at the slightest movement of the ground that its anchored to is far greater than this report.
Written by: kokoloco, 12 Feb 2010 3:12 PM
From: Dominican Republic
I hope this guy is telling the truth, otherwise we're setting ourselves for a dissaster. I'm not too worry about Santo Domingo as it is far enough from major fault lines that an earquake should not have major effect on the area, but there's a fault that goes right thru Santiago and that one is long overdue for a major earthquake. In the last 15 years building constructions have been increasing at an exponential rate in Santiago. I only pray proper preventive measures have been engineer into them, but i have my serious doubs.
We do get constant tremors in the Ciboa region, some of them strong enough to shake you out of bed, hopefully this has been motivation enough to have made architects design these buildings properly.
From: United States
to guys like Glomar, the Professor Generoso, and RobertoJose, let me thank you for taking the heat off me on this issue. when MrDom started showing these pictures of all the glorious structures which characterise the BOOM, so regularly rhapsodised be the likes of Eriliza, i questioned the safety of these buildings, and the emergency preparedness of the city in the event of a serious natural disaster, such as an earthquake. one only has to examine the destruction occasioned in Puerto Plata a few years back by a minor tremor, and extrapolate that to consider what could happen if a 7.2 hit the capital. dissenting voices were very caustic in their dismissal of my concerns, and called me a hater. well, i stand by all i said. i am willing to stand corrected, but, given the legendary proclivity for bribe offering and taking, i question seriously the presence of any serious building codes to ensure safe structures. time will tell, but hopefully not.
From: Botswana, La reconnaissance est une lachete'
Last night I was watching a documentary on Discovery HD about the Haiti quake, based on the seismologists with boots on the ground doing their investigative reports. Here are some interesting facts,base on their findings so far. The energy release by this quake was equivalent to one H bomb exploding over P-au-P. This is the first time since the 1920 earthquake in Japan,one hit a metropolis the size of P-au-P. The reason there is so much damage and lost of lives in P-au-P, is not only because of poor construction ,but also because of the soil composition. It is made up of what is called new sediment which cause the soil to become liquify under the ripple effect of the quake,which is why people could not stand up during the tremor. Yes the area will be hit again, a model of what is called life safe building was showed,it will only add 15% to the cost of construction, its very easy to replicate, its a matter of bracing the columns in a buildings in a particular way.
From: Botswana, La reconnaissance est une lachete'
Conting
knowing the penchant for bribery on the island,and people's love t o cut cost. I doubt anything coming out of Mr Payano's mouth on this matter. It's going to take at least six months in P-au-P for all the inspections to be done.How did this chap came up with his so fast .FYI if you want to know the real figure just do the inverse of his numbers. I'm sure the truth lie somewhere there.This is not California where the reality of earthquake is on people's mind on a daily basis, I doubt the reality of one of that magnitude played a big role in the engineers minds when doing their calculations for most of your construction going back to 79.
From: United States, Orange County, California
Probably he got paid to say that only 30% of the buildings are not resistance to earthquakes.
Written by: josean, 13 Feb 2010 5:13 AM
From: United States, Fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia; Guillermo Moreno President 2016
“Payano, interviewed in the National Palace contradict his declaration of January 29, when he assured that most of the constructions in the country don’t meet the norms on design for seismic resistance, especially public works”
Above I put together and quote what in my opinion is the fundamental fact in the story; i.e. the NARCO GODFATHER made him an offer he could not refuse.
Maybe something along the lines of his Mexican Compadres, “Plata o Plomo!
Written by: josean, 13 Feb 2010 5:20 AM
From: United States, Fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia; Guillermo Moreno President 2016
This is a not so veiled attempt to shore up the sales of those ugly overpriced apartments, in the ugly high-rises after the earth quake in Haiti, which had already been lagging do to the economy and the fact the BORICUA stopped buying them!
From: United States, Fresh Water Paradise-NY Finger Lakes
Domincan future "Leaning Tower of No-Pizza".
Written by: josean, 16 Feb 2010 1:31 AM
From: United States, Fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia; Guillermo Moreno President 2016
Here is a little update to prove my comment above.
Please focus on the last sentence in the article!
Dominican public schools at risk
The president of the Dominican Society of Seismology, engineer Leonardo Reyes Madera says that 6,000 public schools in the DR have structural problems and if an earthquake of similar intensity to the one that affected Haiti on 12 January were to hit this side of the island, many schools would collapse, as occurred in Haiti.
Speaking during a conference on Prevention and Mitigation Measures in the case of Earthquakes, Reyes Madera added that Dominican universities have not updated their study programs to instruct students on how to build for earthquakes. "There is a serious problem between what is a structural calculation and a structural design in areas of earthquake vulnerability that our universities are not teaching the engineering students," he said, as reported in Hoy.
continued:
Written by: josean, 16 Feb 2010 1:32 AM
From: United States, Fighting the Dictatorship of the Narco PLD Mafia; Guillermo Moreno President 2016
He said for instance, the case of building elevators on the sides of buildings. That kind of building will collapse anywhere around the world," he said.
"Victor Payano, president of the Dominican College of Engineers and Architects said that 15% of projects that were in the pipeline have been put on hold by investors who have been affected by potential buyers shying away from purchases after hearing reports on construction concerns in the DR, following the Haiti earthquake."
DR1
From: Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Anyways I still dought that 70% of structures in Dr are earthquake resistence I dought that so much. It depends on how hard it hits or the earthquakes magnitude. If the earthquake happens in Dr the same way as it happened in Haiti ( god forbid) half of those buildings would be down to the ground. My thoughts.
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I don’t want to nit-pick on the fact that some constructions in DR don’t meet the norms for seismic resistance. By any means, I don’t want anyone down the earth to experience such a devastating earthquake like the one which struck my country (Haiti) on January 12.
The Haitian people are very grateful to the Dominican people and their president. Their help and support to Haiti is a gesture of real brotherhood that must last for years, and which may boost both countries in their willingness to build a new and prosperous island.
Just because there is paperwork saying that a building was built to code does not mean it was built to code.
Funny, they didn't come to my place..
Why do I have a hard time believing this?
Well, he is correct until the big one. Then in Dominican style he'll make up some other lie why there was 99% destruction. And feel no shame doing so.
......... and the Titanic was said to be unsinkable.
This is the biggest pack of lies that I have heard in a long time, the guy is backpedaling his previous statements so fast, it is not even funny. Just ask him why the US embassy denies permission to US employees of the DR embassy and consulate, to move into buildings that have a "soft" parking area beneath the building, which are most apartment buildings built in DR.
The authorities are just "hoping" that an earthquake doesn't strike us anytime soon, specially in the capital, as SDQ is not in an immediate fault line, but still very close.
The statements are just intended not to cause panic, as the truth would have us all
living in tents outside, just like the poor Haitian homeless.
We should be outsourcing our judiciary and anti-corruption groups. Lets find all the corrupt one and get them in jail.
COOOOOOOOOOñOO
You didn't leave me much to add to the discussion, as I was planning on stating similarly.
Perhaps, just like they did with the constitution, they re-wrote the earthqauke resistant norms and revised requirements down to 3 on Richter Scale. The story doesn't really stipulate what earthquake level the majority of our buildings would resist.
I don't believe any of this crap. My family does a great deal of building in DR, and I heard a lot of comments about what they see. Most of these buildings probably won't survive anything above a Richter Scale 4. God help us if anything like the one in Haiti ever strikes us. Death toll could reach a million, if it's concentrated in Santo Domingo.
MJEV.
thats exactly what I'm talking about, the research is not done properly. There is a science to all of this and 90% of DR lacks the proper EDUCATION and Discipline. The number of STRUCTURES including buildings that would crumble at the slightest movement of the ground that its anchored to is far greater than this report.
We do get constant tremors in the Ciboa region, some of them strong enough to shake you out of bed, hopefully this has been motivation enough to have made architects design these buildings properly.
knowing the penchant for bribery on the island,and people's love t o cut cost. I doubt anything coming out of Mr Payano's mouth on this matter. It's going to take at least six months in P-au-P for all the inspections to be done.How did this chap came up with his so fast .FYI if you want to know the real figure just do the inverse of his numbers. I'm sure the truth lie somewhere there.This is not California where the reality of earthquake is on people's mind on a daily basis, I doubt the reality of one of that magnitude played a big role in the engineers minds when doing their calculations for most of your construction going back to 79.
Above I put together and quote what in my opinion is the fundamental fact in the story; i.e. the NARCO GODFATHER made him an offer he could not refuse.
Maybe something along the lines of his Mexican Compadres, “Plata o Plomo!
This is a not so veiled attempt to shore up the sales of those ugly overpriced apartments, in the ugly high-rises after the earth quake in Haiti, which had already been lagging do to the economy and the fact the BORICUA stopped buying them!
Domincan future "Leaning Tower of No-Pizza".
Please focus on the last sentence in the article!
Dominican public schools at risk
The president of the Dominican Society of Seismology, engineer Leonardo Reyes Madera says that 6,000 public schools in the DR have structural problems and if an earthquake of similar intensity to the one that affected Haiti on 12 January were to hit this side of the island, many schools would collapse, as occurred in Haiti.
Speaking during a conference on Prevention and Mitigation Measures in the case of Earthquakes, Reyes Madera added that Dominican universities have not updated their study programs to instruct students on how to build for earthquakes. "There is a serious problem between what is a structural calculation and a structural design in areas of earthquake vulnerability that our universities are not teaching the engineering students," he said, as reported in Hoy.
continued:
"Victor Payano, president of the Dominican College of Engineers and Architects said that 15% of projects that were in the pipeline have been put on hold by investors who have been affected by potential buyers shying away from purchases after hearing reports on construction concerns in the DR, following the Haiti earthquake."
DR1