Acehtsunami

Two seismic experts from the Oakland office of AMEC Geomatrix, an engg & project management company are helping prepare an exact report on the effects of the Jan 12 earthquake in Haiti.

Donald Wells, a geologist by AMEC, & Jim French, a geotechnical engineer with the firm, traveled to Haiti to research as part of an 11-member group organized by the National Science Foundation. The team’s head is Ellen Rathje, a professor from the University of Texas.

“We worked in the port region to collect the damage, in Port-au-Prince to catalog building damage, & further west from Leogane next to the coast & inland area near the fault that ruptured,” told Wells.

“The damage to structures & lives clearly was a result of cheap design and construction,” French said.
“We have the facts to design structures to survive the levels of ground shaking skilled in Haiti, but this facts was not put into practice in most of the collapsed buildings.” The group’s study will be used for the U.S. National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.