When a rare earthquake rattled the East Coast earlier this month, Bay Area residents may have felt some comfort in knowing that our communities are well-prepared for seismic activity. But San Francisco is thinking more — concretely — about safety.
The Concrete Building Safety Program kicks off this week, with a focus on monitoring and cataloging concrete buildings that lack steel reinforcement and are seen to be at particular risk. That includes older buildings that rely on brick exterior walls without steel reinforcement, and big-box architecture with weak connections between the walls and roof.
The focus now is on identifying concrete buildings in the city and developing standards for retrofit criteria.
PG&E is also letting the public know what safeguards it has in place to avoid a gas leak during a major earthquake.
This is part of San Francisco’s 30-year plan for improving seismic safety.
The 1906 earthquake happened 118 years ago this week—at 5:12 in the morning on April 18, 1906.
