Officials: China orders probe of school collapses in quake

www.chinaview.cn [Xinhua] ^ | 2008-05-16

[brityank]

The loss of so many children is a tragedy, but I wonder just how well our US schools would survive under similar conditions. I understand that the specifications were set for a Magnitude 5.5 earthquake, and masonry multi-story buildings need more than just rebar for safety.

[brityank]

New article on damage and pending investigation.

[Roccus]

Unreinforced brick buildings do not fare well in earthquakes. From the look of those pictures, that's what they were

[TigersEye]

It's hard to account for everything when building. If they built to withstand a 7.8 (not sure how possible that is) who is to say a bigger quake will never happen?

My heart goes out to all the many who are suffering there now.

[rawhide]

One report I read said that some local government buildings had withstood the quake, because they were built to the correct standards using metal reinforcement. It is a murderous shame the schools were not.

[TXnMA]

"If quality problems do exist in the school buildings, we will deal with the persons responsible strictly with no toleration and give the public a satisfying answer..."

Typical leftist dictatorship approach:

1. Find a scapegoat.

2. Punish the scapegoat severely.

3. Pump out the propaganda to placate the people.

Nothing about bringing in their brightest and best to learn from the damage and design safer buildings...

[kinsman redeemer]

I was in China some time ago. It was the first time I ever saw brick walls built WITH NO MORTAR.

It was just one of the things that amazed me.

[texas booster]

An Asian friend pointed out that these kids were born under China's “One Child” policy, even though it is probably less enforced in Western China.

I read that over 3,500 schools were damaged. With an average of ?? maybe 800 per school, that could be over 250,000 families who were directly affected by this quake, plus extended families.

Its the kind of social upheaval that even China's society could have a problem withstanding.

Parents will put up with almost anything, but to have so many children torn away from life or severely injured could be dangerous to the leadership.

Watch for scapegoats galore.

[spanalot]

And notice not a piece of rebar in sight in all that rubble.

[cmdjing]

I’m not sure how you are doing your math. 3500 schools with an average of 800 students per school isn’t 250,000 it is 2.8 million. In any case, just because 3500 schools were damaged doesn’t mean they all came crashing down with 800 kids in them each. The confirmed death toll is already over 20,000 with the missing and still buried possibly leading up to 50,000. About 20% of China’s population is aged 1-14% so let us assume a minimum of 10,000 children dead and an arbitrary maximum of 20,000.

The parents will do as parents have always done when they lose children. Cope by having more.

[brityank]

I fear that it is no different here, or in Britain. We (the US) had control until ‘the-powers-that-be’ decided that corporations had the same rights (under the Constitution and BoR) as a Man, but left the protections of corporations in place. Those extended to the government so no one can be held accountable.

[old-and-old]

honestly that works everywhere.

[old-and-old]

can you elaborate, what do you mean unreinforced?

[ken21]

they can start with the long beach quake of 1933:

masonry buildings collapsed, killing lots of people.

the state of california began earthquake standards for buildings.

[sam_paine]

And I don’t see any heavy equipment in sight either.

[IM2MAD]

FWIW, I found this image of fault lines in China. Unfortunately it’s sideways and I don’t know how to rotate it. There also some dates of, apparently, when some earthquakes took place.

http://serc.carleton.edu/images/eet/workshops/discussions/china_map.jpg

[Roccus]

Buildings that depend solely on brick, mortar and the patern in which the courses were laid. No steel reinforcement.

http://www.world-housing.net/uploads/brick_Masonry.pdf?pr=Array

[brityank]

Moving heavy equipment around when the roads are cut or damaged or blocked with landslides, plus you're talking about an area the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined for the major damage, and another with minor damage. It is a huge area.

WRT the construction; there is some rebar used, but probably not as much as should have been -- graft is endemic in all societies.

In this photo distributed by the official
Xinhua news agency, rescuers search for
students at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan
Township of Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilo-
meters from the epicenter in Wenchuan county
of southwest China's Sichuan Province, on
Monday May 12, 2008.
(AP Photo/Xinhua, Jiang Yi)

[brityank]

Meant to ping you to this; thanks for your threads.

[Travis McGee]

Who needs rebar anyway? Concrete is strong enough. Just put the rebar money in your pocket, comrade!