Insistence on need to evaluate schools

SD. The president of the Dominican Seismology and Seismic Engineering Society (Sodosismica), Leonardo Reyes Madera, insisted yesterday on the need for the country to evaluate the structures of the schools and hospitals in order to determine whether they have problems that might cause them to collapse during an earthquake.

According to the expert, the problem of the schools and hospitals is that they were not designed for seismic areas and until a short time ago a seismic analysis was not required for their construction. "This does not mean that they are poorly built, what it means to say is that the major of them were constructed outside of the seismic regulations," he said.

Reyes Madera was interviewed in the UNIBE during the announcement of the "International Workshop on Professional Architectural Practices" which is going on at this university since yesterday and will continue until the 28 February, with Japanese experts as the invited guests.