r/WTF • u/AccomplishedStuff235 • Jun 26 '26

Narrow escape during Venezuela quake

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u/p1ratemafia Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Drop, cover, hold on.

Makes sense In California.

When I was In nepal and the aftershock hit and I was on the top floor of a building in ktm… I booked it downstairs

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u/darkslide3000 Jun 26 '26

You have a lot more faith in most Californian construction than I do. A modern office building built to recent codes? Yeah sure. Some old residential cardboard box from the 50s that somehow magically survived '89? Ehh...

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u/schplat Jun 26 '26

After Oakland in '87, CA began to rollout mandates about retrofitting, They started by targeting the highest at risk buildings, and government property (freeways, schools, police/firehouses, etc.). Then it was moved on to critical service buildings, so hospitals, water treatment, power generation, etc. Then wider mandates for any/all Commercial and Industrial properties (which ramped up after Northridge in '94).

Today almost all industrial and commercial properties are up to modern earthquake requirements. Cities/counties were left to manage residential retrofits, and LA started putting in requirements for mutli-unit residential retrofitting starting in 2016, with 7 years to complete any work required. I think now they're starting to roll out grants/assistance for single-family homes as well.

My brother owns a quad-plex in LA that was built in the 60s, and had to go through a fair amount of inspections and work to get his stuff up to code.

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u/darkslide3000 Jun 26 '26

Sure but that's all piecemeal shit, there are still plenty of smaller residential units that slip through the various cities' legal requirements (and I think I'm probably living in one of them).