Santo Domingo.-The Dominican Republic has time to prepare before a major earthquake, even if the recurrence of these catastrophic events are greater, such as those that occurred in Haiti.
This is how the Dominican Society of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering understands it, which does not believe that it can be said what would happen in the near future.
“We have news that every century a catastrophic earthquake occurs on the island, not in the Dominican Republic clearly.”
That position belongs to Héctor O Reilly, president of Sodosísmica and vice-president of the Permanent Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Seismic Code, who states that the most important thing is to carry out the necessary prevention work, and he views with concern that it is alarmed.
Among the preventive measures, he cited building new homes following the 2011 Seismic Code, which is mandatory for national use.
“Just like existing buildings, make evaluations of these structures, and those that do not have adequate resistance, reinforce them so that when an earthquake arrives, they do not register significant damage and loss of life occurs,” said O Reilly, specialist in earthquake resistance.
Both he and the seismologist Juan Alberto Chalas, and Carlos Javier, a resistant seismic engineer, both members of the entity, welcome the Government’s decision to evaluate and reinforce structures such as schools, hospitals and universities, which house many people.
The professionals say that at a private level, their owners must make the evaluations and determine if they need to be reinforced.
*This story was originally published on September 13, 2021
