Expat Community > Uruguay

Vortice
Joined 2016
Posts: 407

Sesmic considerations in Uruguay

1 year ago

Moving to Uruguay from a coastal California town, we were glad to be free of earthquakes. As a building contractor in Montecito, we not only built buildings for earthquakes, we did seismic anchoring on large pieces of furniture and art collections to protect them and the occupants. I thought that all that was behind me once we moved here!
The 5.2 earthquake a while back shook us out of bed at 05:43.... in disbelief. It turns out that experts here expect a 6.3 magnitude quake within the next 20 years. It is tricky for the authorities because they do not want to panic people yet the population deserves to be informed about risks to their health and safety. A 6.3 will devastate Uruguayan housing stock as well as the population. There are essentially no building codes, let alone seismic codes so a 6.3 quake centered anywhere near MVD would be devastating. Most conventional construction with narrow concrete columns, pencil rod rebar, and ticholo block have minimal shear strength to resist shaking and are brittle. Ditto for un-reinforced brick/stone buildings. Factor in large areas such as Carrasco that are built on sand with a high water table and liquefaction becomes a huge problem, a problem that causes authorities to worry about all buildings not just the towers.
All this speaks to non-masonry housing such as wood, steel or, Gasp!, containers. Considerations when looking for a place to live. It also speaks to preparedness: a couple weeks food and water, first aid kit, ditch bag w/ important documents and some cash, tools for demo/rescue, among others.
Anchor everything heavy inside your house. It was often hard to get clients to understand that because the energy in an earthquake is essentially unlimited, the heavier an object is, the farther it will fly and the more damage it will do, as everything is instantly accelerated to the same velocity. I would put a pebble and a twig on my flat palm then strike it at an angle from below; the twig doesn't fly far but the pebble does. Artwork with glass is particularly dangerous and critical to secure.
Out of fear one may choose a head in the sand approach, or to not worry because all possible preparations have been made. Sometimes it is not easy to choose which of the 3 little piggies to emulate!

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