Letters

Tuesday, February 3, 1998

Letters

LETTERS

Seismically safe?

I would like to make a few comments in regard to the article
about UCLA’s seismic corrections ("Many Buildings still need
renovation," Jan. 27, 1998). I am enthralled by the fact that the
UC Regents and the State of California are so concerned with our
welfare that they may begin other seismic corrections as soon as
this winter. After that, we won’t be blessed with life-saving
construction workers until the year 2001. Folks, keep in mind how
long it took them to finish Royce and Powell. Do you think the
other buildings will be finished any faster?

For those of you that say, "I’m not worried that a building will
fall on me – it looks fine now," I assume you weren’t anywhere near
the San Fernando Valley at 4:31 a.m., four years and 10 days ago.
If you were, you sure wouldn’t be saying that. After living in a
city that was virtually cut off from Los Angeles for a week due to
freeway closures and living in a house that almost had its
foundation knocked in half, I fear the smallest aftershock. Kinsey
and Haines and all the other buildings look fine on the outside;
just a bit old. But for those of you Communications 10 students,
check out Kinsey 346. How many thousands of cracks are on those
walls? It makes you feel real safe, doesn’t it?

Probabilities always make people comfortable because everyone
knows that the chance of a 7.5 or greater over the next 50 years is
about 10 percent. These percentages haven’t changed in years; the
Northridge quake was a mere 6.7 – but it sure scared the crap out
of a lot of people, and some people didn’t even have time to be
scared. Statistics mean nothing when it comes to earthquakes
because when a string of earthquakes come along, we always hear the
exact same things from Kate Hutton at Caltech: "Living in Southern
California, it is normal to experience these strings of earthquakes
and aftershocks." Surprise, surprise.

No one ever mentioned anything about the dorms. How safe are
they, at their high altitudes and old age? Now that this issue has
come up in the news, I think it should become one of the school’s
and the state’s top priorities, because you don’t know how safe a
building is until it goes through the ultimate test.

Randy Keith

First-year

Undeclared