WestCon Tribune

JANUARY 2000

JANUARY MEETING

Ji-Ji Earthquake
Lessons Learned For Bay Area Buildings

Presented by: John Meyer, Stan Wu, James Chen
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.

The Magnitude 7.7 Ji-Ji Earthquake in Taiwan on September 21, 1999 was one of the most devastating earthquakes in recent history. It provided a wealth of information on the seismic performance of modern buildings. Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. dispatched a reconnaissance team to Taiwan shortly after the earthquake to study the damage caused by this major earthquake.

John Meyer compiled a presentation to show highlights of the team's observations enhanced with photographs taken in Taiwan. This presentation was given in the Simpson Gumpertz & Heger offices on December 2nd from 12:00 to 1:30pm. As your program director, I had double motivation to take advantage of a presentation of interest to me as well as a potential Westcon dinner meeting presentation. I was not disappointed in either regard. Slides and photographs of the devastation will make quite an impression and enhance your awareness of this earthquake and the many aftershocks that exceeded our Loma Perita Earthquake of 1989.

I believe you will be surprised, as I was at the building codes having jurisdiction for construction in Taiwan Ð surprised at how much, not how little. The recovery and reconstruction is also a lesson to be learned for the speed and efficiency with which construction was dispatched, a good amount of reconstruction had already occurred before the SGH team made its appearance on the scene.

I recall pictures showing a dam where the roadway had sheared away showing the water line level prior to the earthquake to dramatize the displacement. The photographs showing the displacement of earth are unbelievable, but come and make yourself a believer of lessons you can learn from the information that has been compiled from first hand information.

Earthquakes and earthquake retrofit are major concerns in the Bay Area and provide many Westcon members with job opportunities, problems and questions. January's meeting will give us some excellent perspectives of just how important our handling of earthquake issues can be.

The meeting luncheon in December ran approximately an hour and a half. Our dinner meeting will show the highlights and be approximately forty-five minutes of mostly graphic illustrations of the damages and overview narrative without resorting to technical evaluation. We hope to have a good question and answer session and adjourn by 9:00p.m.

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