Photos of Port at Port-au-Prince by Glenn Rix, Georgia Tech

Steve Baldridge and I visited the main port in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, January 27. There are two piers at the port. The north pier is where the crane is that many may have seen in photos. The wharf was completely destroyed by liquefaction-induced lateral spreading and is now submerged. At present, no effort is being made to restore operations at the north pier because of the extensive damage. The south pier was less heavily damaged with much of the damage concentrated in the batter piles. US Army divers assessed the condition of the piling supporting the pier and it was opened to allow one truck at a time to offload cargo. NAVFAC engineers are developing plans to repair that damage as quickly as possible to make the pier fully operational again. Unfortunately, one of the recent aftershocks caused more damage, and the pier was closed again on Tuesday evening and remained so through at least Wednesday when we visited.

Haiti Damage and Needs Assessment: EERI Partners with the World Bank in a Global Initiative

The World Bank, supported by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), announced today that it has mobilized scientists and technical experts around the world to help assess the impacts of the earthquake in Haiti.

Posts from Anuradha Mukherji, Boston University

Visit the blog site at: http://anuradha.net/blog/index.html

JAXA InSAR Imagery of the Eastern End

Here is a translated link to new JAXA ALOS InSAR imagery the eastern half of the fault rupture.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eorc.jaxa.jp%2FALOS%2Fimg_up%2Fjdis_pal_haiti_100126.htm

Tim Dixon and Falk Amelung of the University of Miami have a webpage outlining some of the latest science (geodesy) on the Haiti earthquake.

http://www.geodesy.miami.edu/

THESE DATA PRODUCTS CAN BE FREELY DISTRIBUTED – UNRESTRICTED

Briefing to General Fraser, SOUTHCOM

Our team spent the day at Homestead AF base near Miami waiting for a flight to PaP.

At around 5 pm, Lieutenant Colonel Woolwine requested that we meet with General Fraser (Commander of SOUTHCOM) to brief him on our activities and respond to some of his questions about the seismic situation. He is mainly concerned about the safety of his troops. After meeting with General Fraser (and Colonel Sweeney), we promised to make a similar briefing to the staff in Haiti. The outline of the presentation is provided below.

Read more

GEER Team Formed

The Geo-engineering in Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) team has been formed.  The team will be led by Dr. Ellen Rathje, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas Austin.

Also participating in the investigation are Mr. Jeff Bachhuber (Fugro/William Lettis and Associates), Prof. Brady Cox (University of Arkansas), Mr. Jim French (AMEC/Geomatrix), Prof. Russell Green (Virginia Tech), Prof. Scott Olson (University of Illinois), Prof. Glenn Rix (Georgia Tech), Mr. Oscar Suncar (University of Texas), and Mr. Donald Wells (AMEC/Geomatrix).

Press Release is available here: GEER Press Release.pdf

R. Clarke: Observations from Quick Damage Assessment Visit

Richard Clarke, Lecturer at the University of West Indies was a member of the CARICOM (CARIbbean COMmunity (a group of the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean including Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, etc) group that was asked to go a few days after the earthquake.  His function was to assess existing non-collapsed buildings for possible use as temporary medical facilities. Based on his very preliminary survey, he offered some observations on construction practices:

1.       A prevalent form of earthquake-resisting structural system used in Haiti, especially for housing, is a particular system used extensively in Europe and is called “confined masonry”.  (also view www.confinedmasonry.org).   In Haiti the blocks are mainly of concrete vertical cell units 6” thick (and 8” high x 16” long).  I do not recall seeing rebar larger than ½”in the debris of any of the housing structures.  The typical Haitian house has a concrete roof, probably for hurricane resistance.

2.       Interestingly, in many instances of multi-story construction, flat-slab reinforced concrete is the gravity load system.  It is also common to find that the floor slabs are of “concrete composite” construction.  That is, blocks are used as fillers and permanent formwork, but space is left on either side to facilitate the placement of the rebar.  The concrete is then placed with a topping.  I am not sure if fabric reinforcement is placed in the topping, or its thickness.

3.       The confined masonry has reinforced concrete columns integrated with the blocks and sometimes these are extended upwards thus acting like columns supporting the concrete flat-slab floor.  It seems that collapse was frequently due to shear failure of these columns, which are generally quite small (no more than 10”x10”).  Punching shear failure of the floor due to inadequate rebar and/or shear strength of the flat-slab is also probably another failure mode.

4.       It also seems that for the RC framed buildings, the strong-column-weak-beam capacity design rule was not followed since the columns seem too small.

5.       Many structures did not collapse and given the existence of engineers in Haiti, I expect that in the final analysis, the main cause of collapse will not be primarily due to lack of knowledge, but rather the lack of the input by a professional engineer in the design and construction of the collapsed structure.  This will be understandable given the extensive poverty which will promote the use of substandard materials, and irregular structures.

Photos from his visit are available for viewing at http://profile.imageshack.us/user/rpclarke

USGS Statement on EQ Hazard & Safety in Haiti & Region

The U.S. Geological Survey has released a short statement on the earthquake hazard in Haiti and the Caribbean region, conveying their best judgment about the possibility of future earthquakes in the region.  The statement is available by clicking Earthquake Hazard and Safety in Haiti and the Caribbean Region.

EERI Team Leader travels to Haiti for damage assessment

The following interview was taken from the CNN website here.

(CNN) — Reginald DesRoches is deploying to Haiti to tag key infrastructure buildings with red, yellow and green markers — designations on whether they’re still usable.

DesRoches has years of experience as a civil engineering expert dealing with structures in the wake of earthquakes. This disaster is also personal: He was born in Haiti and one of his uncles died in the quake’s aftermath.

The associate chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Civil Engineering, DesRoches will lead a team of experts in Haiti about the sustainability of buildings. He spoke with CNN before heading to Port-au-Prince.

Below is a transcript of the interview, a portion of which has been edited.

Read more

Pre-earthquake coverage of Haiti from Miami Herald

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/1401

Next Page »