Obama orders more earthquake resilience for gov’t buildings

[ErikJ]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has ordered all new or renovated federal buildings to be equipped with the latest protections against earthquakes.

Obama signed an executive order on Tuesday creating a Federal Earthquake Risk Management Standard. The White House says the standard will improve federal buildings’ resilience to earthquakes, making them safer and lowering the costs for recovering from a quake.


Obama’s order said that agencies constructing or updating federal buildings must ensure they’re built with earthquake-resistant designs that meet the latest building codes. The White House said that following those codes is one of the best ways to save the lives of people living in a building.

The White House is also seeking to make more progress in deploying an early earthquake warning system along the West Coast. Federal agencies are exploring ways to speed up the permitting process for new seismic monitoring stations.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said during a White House conference on earthquake resilience that the goal is to give people a short head start before an earthquake hits. Such detections systems would allow trains to stop or slow down and elevator doors to open a few seconds before the full force of the earthquake hits.

Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/obama-orders-more-earthquake-resilience-for-govt-buildings/

[thesquanderer]

1. That damn constitution-ignoring socialist.

Just in case... yes, sarcasm.

[rpannier]

4. He should just let the free market handle these issues

I mean... so a few thousand die before the buildings get earthquake proof.
And if they're government buildings, they should be immediately turned over to private companies. I mean, everyone knows they're far more efficient than government organizations

Yes... sarcasm

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. People crushed to death in unreinforced buildings will punish the owners...

... by taking their business elsewhere.

The free hand of the market prevails again!!

[jtuck004]

2. Should name it the Federal Fracking Management Agency. n/t

[forest444]

3. Thread winner, right here.

Even in a tragedy humor sometimes drives the point home better than any amount of indignation.

[Geronimoe]

5. Thanks to fracking

we can expect more earth quakes. In PA the gas companies don't even pay taxes on gas extracted, only a site fee.

[ErikJ]

6. Not fracking EQ's. The 9.0 Megathrust EQ coming to the PNW

and the San Andreas fault too in CA.

They say the 9.0 in the PNW will be the worst natural disaster in history as it will level 3 big PNW cities Seattle, Portland and Van BC, that are 95% unprepared as they had no idea 25 yrs ago this was overdue by many years.