BUILDING CODES KEEP DAMAGE TO A MINIMUM

摘要

California's strict building codes protected Chino Hills, the area in San Bernardino County hit hardest by the earthquake that occurred on July 29. The area experienced minimal damage because the temblor, which measured 5.4 on the Rich-ter scale and was the first significant earthquake to occur in an urban area in California in more than a decade, occurred in a location that had undergone development within the past decade. Most of the structures in the area were built after building codes had been strengthened in response to the Northridge earthquake, which struck the Los Angeles area in 1994 and had a magnitude of 6.7. The most significant effects of the earthquake were experienced by phone and Internet systems, which were inundated in the minutes following the earthquake, the Los Angeles Times reports. Even though a magnitude of 5.4 is considered moderate, the temblor could have caused widespread damage if its epicenter had been in an area with no seismic building code regulations. Indeed, the newspaper quotes Lucy Jones, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, who said that if the earthquake had struck the nearby city of San Bernardino, where more than 200 unreinforced masonry buildings are located, "we would have had a lot of downed buildings."