Mr. Rawles:
You recently advised your preference for masonry, adobe, and rammed-earth
retreat construction for the obvious ballistic protection and I agree.
But here in northern Idaho and Montana we have recently experienced
increased earthquake activity and you might caution your loyal readership
to
visit the excellent USGS website http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/states/idaho/hazards.html which
provides detailed USA earthquake zone maps. Three million folks in
Pakistan are now presently homeless because their bullet-proof houses
crumbled after the earthquake. Before anyone builds their retreat they
should also learn about California earthquake building codes and how
to add inexpensive metal strapping to wood construction so their retreat
does not also become their coffin in the event of an earthquake. Simpson
Strongtie Corp's website http://www.strongtie.com/products/strongwall/index.html?source=topnav is
the industry standard for hardening construction. Regards, - "Book"
JWR Replies: In that impoverished part of the world
they are famous for building masonry buildings with reinforcement,
since re-bar
is
expensive--at
least by Third World standards. But I definitely agree that regardless
of how much re-bar you might add, a wood frame house is much more suitable
than masonry in earthquake country.