what are the various structural safety measures taken up for constructing a disaster resistant building? in about 150 words.
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Natural disasters are sudden and dangerously powerful, making them a serious threat to communities nationwide. Professionals have learned to anticipate some like hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes, but others can still strike with no warning. Earthquakes of any magnitude can occur any time of the year with almost no indications. They can affect small remote areas, or destroy large cities. Experts have discovered specific U.S. areas highly prone to earthquakes, but technically they could happen anywhere. In a country brimming with permanent steel, glass, and concrete structures, earthquakes possibly pose the greatest threat of widespread destruction.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) works in cooperation with the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) to research and design structural building practices and regulations to protect against earthquakes. Their goal is to minimize damage and injury through a building’s structural integrity. The FEMA and NEHRP safety professionals work with engineers and architects to identify building characteristics that directly affect a building’s behavior during shakes and vibrations. Earthquakes are defined as rapid shaking of the ground caused by the shift of rock and tectonic plates underground. The ground seems solid, but the upper crust of earth is deep and long periods of time cause pressure to build up between plates and fissures. When the pressure gives, seismic vibrations and violent shaking reverberate to the surface, immediately affecting miles of land. After the initial quake, aftershocks can occur resulting in further damage.
Earthquakes can virtually happen anywhere in the U.S., but the high-risk areas include California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, and New England. These areas are held to higher, stricter building standards as published by the NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions. The buildings may have to endure radical movement and foundation shifts in order to minimize damage and protect the people inside and around them. If they fracture or collapse, no emergency plan can protect the people from harm. Earthquake-resistant building designs consider the following characteristics that influence their structural integrity: stiffness and strength, regularity, redundancy, foundations, and load paths.
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