Granted, it is on the idilic Caribbean island of St. Vincent, with an envious climate, glorious beaches and stunning landscapes, but it is also subject to infrequent but large earthquakes.
As a structural engineer, my job is to ensure that structures withstand the forces of nature, whether that is wind, rain, snow, people, bathtubs full of water or seismic shaking. There are design rules, codes and standards, guidelines and common structural principles which apply to different loading scenarios throughout the world - for example snow loading in Cameroon will be different to that in Canada.
For a structure to withstand seismic shaking there are a set of principles too. Survey of damage after destructive earthquakes can clearly highlight the reasons for failure, and so as each earthquake passes we learn more. One of these general principles is that, put simply, columns should be bigger than beams. Imagine a column failing, the floor structure will fall and likely bring the whole structure down with it. However if a beam fails, a localised section of floor might fall down but the columns are still intact, hence the structure may not undergo catastrophic collapse.
Another seismic design principle is to avoid 'soft storeys'. These are storeys of a building that have significantly less structural strength and stiffness, e.g. a tall office block with an open ground floor car park with less columns and no walls. When the building shakes, the soft storey is likely to give way and collapse and the building ends up a storey shorter. See here.
So look again at this house.
What do you think?
P.s. Other things that may be a worry: landslides, volcanic hazards, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc.
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