Northridge Aftermath: Aftershocks Continue Devastating 1994 California quake forced changes, but room for improvement remains
"Were always fighting against the last earthquake we experienced...instead of trying to look ahead to see whats on the horizon and fix the problem," says Thomas H. Heaton, a geology professor at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena who studies the structural impact of earthquakes. He calls for a greater dialogue between engineers and earth scientists. Despite common interests, they "continue to talk past each other on some of these issues," he contends.
The damage sustained by buildings accounts for a significant share of the quakes human and economic costs57 deaths, 1,500 serious injuries, $40.6 billion in losses. Some 12,500 buildings sustained moderate to severe damage, 7,000 were deemed unsafe, and 25,000 housing units were rendered uninhabitable. Bob Steinbach, assistant bureau chief for Los Angeles Dept. of Building and Safety, asserts that "trends in design and construction have gone very, very conservative."