Natural disasters happen. But recent events have painfully reminded us that given appropriate oversight some tragedies can be avoided. No one can stop tectonic plates from shifting suddenly or rainfall from being higher or more violent than the seasonal average. Disasters are unavoidable and for those people in the wrong place at the wrong time serious injury or death may result. Over the years people have learned from their mistakes and adapted their environment to the unique challenges that may arise from their particular geographic areas. However some risks are periodic, only occurring once or twice a decade or century. As the terror and destruction of a natural disaster fade from people’s immediate memories it is easy to forget the importance of taking the extra steps to protect against catastrophes when a disaster does occur. It is the responsibility of governing bodies to remember past natural disasters and ensure that buildings are constructed to adequately withstand or safely fail in the case of ‘the big one’, or whatever the worst of plausible disasters might be for that area.
When it comes to safety, public buildings like schools, hospitals, museums, apartment buildings, movie theaters and gyms are usually held to different standards and are required to conform to more stringent codes. Secondary exits are a must in case of widespread panic or fires, particularly when a building has multiple stories. Furthermore if anything might compromise the structural integrity of a public building an inspector must affirm that it is still safe or suggest actions to make it so. Regulations are here to protect the public, but sometimes they don’t seem to do enough. In that case it is left up to the people creating a specific building to recognize possible risks, even when they are periodic in nature. For instance, this could include creating a safe room in a school which is in an area with frequent tornadoes or building with ductile materials when earthquakes have beset an area in the past.
In the case of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma the reliance on a nearby community building for protection instead of having a safe room in the school claimed lives. The May 20 tornado decimated the elementary school killing seven third grade students who had been taking shelter in a hallway in the school. Devastating tornadoes are not new for Moore, a 1999 E-F5 tornado with winds over 300 miles per hour following nearly the same path decimated the town, killing 41 people. It also destroyed the Kelley Elementary School which had luckily been let out for the day. So why didn’t Plaza Towers, despite its vulnerability to tornadoes, have a safe room? Although public concern is high over the lack of tornado safe rooms in area schools it is countered by the availability of funds and the likelihood of these disasters happening. After the 1999 tornado, Moore town officials rated the chance of a similar magnitude tornado hitting the town as less than 1 percent. The attitude that low probability of an event recurring justifies poor preparation led to an increase in loss of life. The result of not being prepared is tragic, but unfortunately the high cost of retrofitting makes improving existing schools difficult. Retrofitting a school with safe rooms costs between $600,000 to $1million, a cost the Oklahoma Department of Emergency simply can’t afford for all schools. As of now it will cost approximately $2billion to outfit all Oklahoma schools with tornado safe rooms, raising the question, why wasn’t it a necessary part of the original design?
Internationally, building practices vary substantially. In Japan large earthquakes like the 2011 quake which caused the Fukushima meltdown may cause skyscrapers to sway alarmingly but good design leads to minimal damages. (Granted the Tsunami was incredibly damaging and caused substantial loss of life). However in China an 8.0 magnitude quake on May 12, 2008 killed more than 80,000 people in Sichuan, burying more than 19,000 children, most in their schools. This disproportionate amount of deaths (the 2010 population of Sichuan province was 80,418,200 according to Wikipedia) could have been prevented by better oversight of building procedures and better regulatory practices. We as humans are not omnipotent beings, but we are able to weigh risks and consider the potential for future disasters. It is our responsibility to plan for the worst possible tomorrow, whether that tomorrow is a day in the future or several years. By increasing regulations, a framework can be laid for a safer future.
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