BAGUIO CITY, (PNA)–City mayor Mauricio Domogan has approved the move for city building officials to start soon the inspection of safety and earthquake readiness of both old and new buildingts in this mountain resort.
The recent devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake which hit Visayan islands recently prompted structural and other engineers here to review their designs and constructed edifices.
In the July 16, 1990 “killer earthquake”, both old and new buildings here collapsed. In later studies, their proximity to fault lines and the lack of columns of high rise structures were the causes why many tall and new buildings twisted at the middle at the first rocking movement of the earth and totally collapsed with the further heaving of the earth in the fashion of ocean waves.
As to this city, aside from the periodic earthquake drills of students and residents, city offices enforcing safety standards have periodically inspected buildings especially during the period when the hundreds of students are about to arrive in this educational center in northern Luzon.
According to Domogan, the residents here after what they experienced in 1990 are no longer take things in chances.
”That is why we have a risk reduction management program in order that we can institute measures how we can eliminate casualty or prevent the destruction of properties,” he said.
The role of the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences (BMG) is important in this objective as the structural engineers usually require boring tests to determine the holding capacity of the soil.
Besides, the BMG geohazard map could guide building officials in allowing what and were structures to be built.