{"id":2571,"date":"2014-02-20T19:01:22","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T11:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2015-02-01T11:31:34","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T03:31:34","slug":"dost-phivolcs-launches-questionnaire-for-quake-safe-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/02\/20\/dost-phivolcs-launches-questionnaire-for-quake-safe-house\/","title":{"rendered":"DOST-PHIVOLCS launches questionnaire for quake-safe house"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EARTHQUAKE_RESISTANCE_CHECKLIST_FOR_HOMEOWNERS2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is your house ready for a strong earthquake?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To help owners of concrete hollow block (CHB) houses answer this question, the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), launched a 12-point questionnaire last February 19 at the PHIVOLCS Auditorium in Quezon City.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The questionnaire is designed to guide homewners in assessing whether their homes are strong enough to withstand a major earthquake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The questionnaire, titled \u201cHow Safe is My House? Self-check for Earthquake Safety of CHB Houses in the Philippines\u201d, has 12 questions, each with three possible answers. Each answer is equivalent to a point. The total number of points earned determines the strength or vulnerability of the structure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among the questions in the checklist are:\u00a0 Who built or designed my house? How old is my house? What is the shape of my house?\u00a0 Has my house been extended or expanded?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The rest deal with equally important information such as damage incurred from previous disasters, CHB thickness, soil condition, use of standard size steel bars, width of unsupported walls, among others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution is to recognize the problem. Where will this recognition start? It should start with the homeowner,\u201d emphasized\u00a0\u00a0 PHIVOLCS\u00a0 Director\u00a0 Dr. Renato U. Solidum\u00a0 Jr. during the launch.\u00a0 Previously, Solidum explained that an earthquake resistant house will not collapse even if an Intensity 9 temblor strikes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, the questionnaire is not just useful for homeowners but also for local engineers, building officials, and local government unit authorities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis material can also be practically used to ensure safety before the construction of houses,\u201d reminded Takahiro Sasaki, chief representative \u00a0of\u00a0 JICA \u00a0Philippines, in his message.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The questionnaire, which was tested on some damaged houses and structures in Bohol following the\u00a0 Oct. 15, 2013 tremor in the province, was derived from field verifications, quake damage surveys, and several experiments and tests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among these experiments were the full-scale Shaking Table Test of CHB Houses conducted by Filipino and Japanese experts at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention in Tsukuba, Japan in February 2011. The experiment involved two houses, an engineered model that followed the Building Code, and a non-engineered one representing the more common CHB residence in the Philippines. Tests showed the latter incurring damage immediately , leading to the eventual collapse of certain parts during the earthquake simulation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cCasualties from past earthquakes were caused by the collapse of buildings. And part of those are from damaged to collapsed non-engineered houses,\u201d revealed Solidum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the open forum, Engr. Ronaldo S. Ison of the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP), another project proponent, said that a strong earthquake may still cause debris to fall.\u00a0 However, an eventual collapse will not take place if it is an engineered house.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201d What we\u2019re trying to do is to educate everybody, that even if you employ masons and carpenters, they should be following certain standards. It is the right time for us to inform the public that we should not just rely on masons and carpenters to build our houses,\u201d declared Engr. Ison.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The PHIVOLCS director added that a safe house should be combined with appropriate response from people living in it to make them safer and further prevent damage and injury.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PHIVOLCS and its partners are currently preparing a Tagalog version of the 12-point questionnaire\u00a0 and plan to come up with a similar checklist for wooden houses. Also in the pipeline is a computer simulation program to test the earthquake readiness of engineering and architectural designs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aside from PHIVOLCS, JICA, and ASEP, the Japan Science and Technology Agency is also involved in the project.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHow Safe is My House? Self-check for Earthquake Safety of CHB Houses in the Philippines\u201d may be downloaded at http:\/\/www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EARTHQUAKE \u00a0RESISTANCE \u00a0CHECKLIST \u00a0FOR \u00a0HOMEOWNERS.<\/b>\u00a0 Do you want to know if your house is strong enough not to collapse or be damaged in the face of a strong earthquake?\u00a0 The \u00a0Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology\u00a0 launched \u201cHow Safe is My House? Self-check for Earthquake Safety of CHB Houses in the Philippines\u201d last February 19 at the PHIVOLCS Auditorium to provide a 12-point checklist for owners of concrete hollow block (CHB) houses. The questionnaire helps residents to determine whether their CHB homes are earthquake resistant or not. The material may be downloaded at http:\/\/www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph<\/a>. (Photos by Joy M. Lazcano, S&T Media Service, DOST-STII)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is your house ready for a strong earthquake?   To help owners of concrete hollow block (CHB) houses answer this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":2572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[417,418,419],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","tag-earthquake","tag-house","tag-safe","mauthors-department-of-science-and-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}