The Value of Building Codes

While there were many factors in the destruction and loss of life from the recent earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and Turkey, these events clearly demonstrated the value of building codes in their ability to save lives. Typically, countries that suffer from greater poverty have weaker building codes and and greater difficulty enforcing them. Emily Schmall wrote this article comparing the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes. As per the UN-Wider study, Chile has the 44th highest net worth per capita, Turkey ranks 57th, and Haiti 109th. By comparison the earthquake in Chile was nearly 16,000 times stronger than the recent earthquake in Turkey, but Chile suffered less than six times the number of deaths in Turkey. The Haitian earthquake struck with a force in between the other two, but resulted in over 500 times the number of deaths from the two other earthquakes combined.