- CONTRA COSTA, Calif. (UPI)
-- About 7,500 schools in California are vulnerable to severe damage if
jolted by an earthquake, and retrofitting them to reduce that vulnerability
could cost $4.7 billion, according to a state study made public on Friday.
-
- The "Seismic Safety Inventory of California Public
Schools" doesn't specify which schools or districts have the most
seismically sensitive structures, according to the Saturday edition of
the Contra Costa Times.
-
- Instead, it focuses on building types utilized in pre-1978
structures and, based on a school's proximity to an earthquake fault, gives
a dollar figure for strengthening it. California construction regulations
were amended in 1978 to improve schools' quake readiness.
-
- The report by the Division of State Architects was mandated
by a law in 1999, and it was supposed to have been delivered by Dec. 31,
2001. The newspaper didn't say why the document wasn't released until now.
-
- The inventory of elementary, middle and high schools
divided the buildings into two categories: one for those that were expected
-- but not guaranteed -- to have "life safety performance" in
an earthquake, and those that probably wouldn't hold up.
-
- Districts with potentially unsafe schools will be contacted
and offered help, it said, but the public won't know the status of schools
until local officials tell them.
-
- Copyright © 2002 United Press International. All
rights reserved.
|
