In the wake of the recent 5.6-magnitude earthquake that shook eastern Jamaica, there is naturally heightened anxiety and concerns about the safety of buildings. This may be of greater concern for us living on a small island situated in an earthquake zone.

For background, Kingston is situated on a fault line and is naturally susceptible to earthquakes and the building standards for Jamaica already require architects and engineers to factor in natural disasters when designing structures.

Speaking with Our Today, Marvin Campbell, immediate past president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE), said: “In the event of an earthquake and once personal safety has been confirmed, it’s important to determine if the integrity of a structure has been compromised.”

“The earliest and most visible signs to look out for are any settlement of the foundation, meaning if the ground floor seems to have gotten lower or shifted and if there are any cracks on the walls, columns, beams, and slabs,” he explained.

Campbell clarified that not all cracks are an indicator of the building being compromised, as some cracks can be non-structural. He explained, “It is dependent on the type of crack, whether it’s a structural element that supports the building or non-structural, the direction, width and depth of the cracks and so forth, all of which would require an assessment by a registered structural engineer to determine root cause and severity of the cracking or settlement and what rehabilitation can be done.”

Campbell said it’s also important to be wary of older buildings, even though they may have been built to the code of their time, once a building older than 10 -15 years has experienced an earthquake, it is recommended to have the building assessed.