Can apartment collapses happen in California?

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Local structural engineers say California buildings can be five times stronger than those in Florida due to seismic building codes.

SACRAMENTO, CA – As the search for survivors of a building collapse near Miami continues into its fifth day, the remains of eleven people have been found so far.

Officials said 150 others were still missing while rescuers searched the rubble.

It may take several weeks or months for us to find out how something of this magnitude happened and who is responsible. Meanwhile, local structural engineers in the Sacramento area are studying whether something like this could happen in California.

“Maybe our team and I have assessed more than 500,000 damaged or collapsed buildings around the world,” said Dr. Kate Miyamoto, global CEO of Miyamoto International.

ABC10 first introduced you to him when he was sent to survey earthquake damage in Mexico City in 2017. Today, working from Davis, he’s trying to piece together what happened in the Surfside apartment collapse in Florida.

“Structures made of concrete or pillars or pillars and then the concrete floor attached to them, 12 levels, right? It’s a heavy weight of construction, so if the basement fails where the collapse started, basically everything comes down. What happened there,” Miyamoto said.

But he says that because of California’s strict earthquake building codes, something like this is unlikely to happen here. It all comes down to the design.

California buildings feature redundant designs enhanced by what they call a shear wall.

“Essentially, a kind of spine in the body, in a sense. They had a very small spine. Here, we probably have five times more than they have, so in a sense, (it’s) five times stronger,” he said.

Even with the very small chance of an apartment collapse here in California, others say there’s another important looming factor every building owner needs to consider.

“If something is really affecting structural integrity by having no maintenance during the life of a building, no good design can prevent that,” said Ryan Kersting, a licensed structural engineer representing the California Structural Engineers Association.

Kirsting said that while our buildings can be stronger when they are up to earthquake law, maintaining those buildings is just as important as keeping them standing.

“Things like the potential settlement of a foundation or the potential for water intrusion or moisture or pest intrusion — it could be a sign of something causing the structural components to weaken,” he said.

Going forward, Kirsting said we are likely to see changes in local or even national policy come from the Florida tragedy.

“I would say our industry will definitely respond to this with the help of policy makers at the state and local levels, and if we need to pass ordinances or laws to help us achieve that, I am sure we will be assessing this as well.”

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