Engineers learn from Colombia quake

January 31, 1999

Web posted at: 3:03 AM EST (0803 GMT)

ARMENIA, Colombia (AP) -- Construction engineer Anibal Galeano trudged past the rubble caused by Colombia's devastating earthquake and contemplated errors made by his predecessors.

"It is a natural laboratory," said the engineer from Medellin, one of hundreds of experts inspecting the damaged buildings in this city in hopes of learning lessons to save lives in the future.

Immediately after Monday's quake, which killed at least 940 people and left an estimated 200,000 people homeless, engineers checked major buildings in the hard-hit western city of Armenia.

Starting Saturday, they took a closer, and often final, look at the worst of those that still stand.

"Now the question is: demolish or not demolish," said engineer Antonio Morales of Armenia.

The Sahara apartment building was clearly a candidate for demolition. Half of it had collapsed. The other half was cracked, with gaping holes.

Some buildings won a reprieve: orders they be abandoned for further study or repairs. A few were largely unscathed.

Near the Sahara building, the engineers quickly condemned a line of five old apartment buildings.

Despite the destruction, many of the engineers felt vindicated: Some recent anti-quake measures had worked.

A 1984 building code passed a year after a quake in Popayan "helped avoid a much greater disaster," said Galeano.

Almost all the collapsed buildings -- amounting to about 40 percent of the city's structures -- were built before 1984.

An even stronger code was enacted last year, but about 70 percent of the construction in Armenia adhered to neither statute, said Alvaro Nieto, director of the National Seismic Network.

The 1984 code demanded that building skeletons withstand a quake but did not protect against damage to walls, facades and other nonstructural pieces. The new law calls for more rigid walls and facades.

Worried about her home, Dolly Echeverri approached Luis Garza, an engineering professor helping with the damage assessment, in the street and asked him to take a look. In the living room, the floor sank badly. Well-painted plaster crumbled away from the crude wall beneath.

"You should leave," Garza told the well-dressed woman. "With an aftershock, this could all come down."