Structural engineers on reconnaissance missions in quake-ravaged Haiti observing the salvaging of compromised building materials are extremely concerned about premature rebuilding. The work, getting under way, is perpetuating the very poor construction practices that caused hundreds of thousands of collapses and more than 170,000 deaths in the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck on Jan. 12 with an epicenter 25 kilometers from Port-au-Prince.
“We observed several instances of people” salvaging reinforcing-steel bars out of broken concrete elements from the rubble of pancaked buildings, says Andre Filiatrault, a University at Buffalo civil engineering professor and director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), also at UB.