'Some Corporate Area medical facilities will not stand up to strong earthquake'

Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

A STUDY of 12 critical medical facilities in the Corporate Area has revealed that 75 per cent of them need retrofitting to ensure structural integrity in the event of a severe earthquake.

Presenting his thesis on 'Seismic Screening of Critical Medical Facilities in Kingston' at the 5th annual Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management in Montego Bay, St James, on Monday, University of the West Indies, Mona, doctoral student Kevin Tankoo said there was a need to implement more policies in relation to building codes in the country.

"We are definitely not prepared to handle anything like the earthquake that hit Haiti, and what happened there is possible in Kingston," Tankoo told the conference being held at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa.

According to Tankoo, with the seemingly increasing number of natural hazards in the Caribbean, more comprehensive disaster-management plans need to be set in place for the islands.

He said Jamaica is in a medium to highly active seismic zone.

"Due to multiple seismic events, steps towards changing the developmental pattern, a more stringent approach to building and maintenance should be a necessity," he told The Gleaner.

Noting that his research team had taken the initiative to assess lifeline structures and supporting facilities in Kingston, Tankoo said the first step in the assessment focused on a preliminary assessment of critical medical facilities in the capital city of Kingston using the Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) procedure.

The technique involved the assessment of visible features of buildings in relation to construction material and subsurface geology, among others, while utilising an empirical scoring technique.

"From the assessment of these medical facilities, most of the critical buildings showed a low score," said Tankoo.

The RVS procedure serves as a first step in a seismic assessment and should be applied across Jamaica towards reducing the underlying risks of earthquakes to critical buildings to minimise loss of lives, he argued.

Step towards awareness

Meanwhile, Lyndon Brown, Tankoo's doctoral adviser and head of the earthquake unit at the University of the West Indies, said the research represents a major step in creating awareness and preparedness about the vulnerability of Jamaica's health system.

"It's not just the hospitals. The schools, police stations, government buildings, places that should be offering assistance when there is a disaster should be part of a hazard assessment to make them resilient."

Commenting on the findings, head of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Ronald Jackson, said the issue of whether the important buildings would stand up to an earthquake similar to the one that hit Haiti in January was difficult for him to predict, without engineering guidance.

"By nature and practice, we build above the standards applied in other places, such as Haiti," Jackson said.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com