Dear Mitch,
this is realy a very good NYT article with most valuable graphics! It also warns us to hastily accuse people of negligence or ignorance, but learn to understand that such events are outstanding and that human actions, reactions (or failures to act) need be understood from their individual context. As I learned long-time ago in a coaching class: "Every human being behaves in a way it makes sense to him or her." (perhaps attributed to the Humberto Maturana, I'm not sure).
Through Julie of FED I received the report by the Royal Commission investigating the collapse of the Quebec Bridge 1907 and watched Henry Petroski's lecture at Duke university (Duke Engineering TALKS: Henry Petroski, PhD). Engineers may take wrong decisions sometimes, but in all modesty we should try to understand them and be careful with our judgment, not knowing how we might have decided under the given circumstances!
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| Duke Engineering TALKS: Henry Petroski, PhD |
| Henry Petroski, professor of civil and environmental engineering, discusses his work on the history of bridge design and its successes and failures in a talk given to prospective undergraduate students. |
| View this on YouTube > |
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J.-Martin Hohberg
Dr.sc.techn, M.ASCE FED
Sr. Consultant, IABSE e-Learning Board
Bremgarten / Berne, Switzerland
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-04-2026 07:19 AM
From: Mitchell Winkler
Subject: Disaster Lessons Learned
I was hoping to take this conversation in a more general direction but to your point I found this very insightful article in the New York Times. I pasted the link as a gift article.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/03/world/americas/venezuela-earthquakes-epicenter-maps.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vFA.J6dn.uT3lsgOYrWdP&smid=nytcore-ios-share
I hope the ASCE team will pick up on this.
I also hope you and others will consider my original post, too.
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Mitch Winkler P.E.(inactive), M.ASCE
Houston, TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-01-2026 04:37 PM
From: Joerg-Martin Hohberg
Subject: Disaster Lessons Learned
Hi Mitch,
I'm not familiar with the extent to which the FED collects experience from outside the U.S. But certainly the international community of earthquake engineering is analyzing the disasters and publishes regularly the learnings. Cf. https://wcee.nicee.org/wcee/index.php?__cf_chl_f_tk=g9efFofaOX4X7a..YxjYjyaYCn44_oDRSXYG6k2ZIC8-1782937636-1.0.1.1-vkhQHJAQimzXco.HcuizGWTNwsZqhJPe9c5utGYMZuI
Part of the problem is the microzonation of resonating weak strata in the ground amplifying the seismic motion in the low-frequency range to which high rise buildings are susceptible (as discussed in the Mexico City EQ 1985: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Mexico_City_earthquake). Venezuela had now a similar problem. From what I heard the CoP on aseismic design in Venezuela is quite modern, but it is always a question of the integrity and the degree of enforcement by government authorities (not just on plans but in practical site supervision).
I guess that were are going to have some discussions at the forthcoming IABSE Symposium in Guwahati/India (April 2027), focussing on all sorts of collapses: https://www.iabse.org/Guwahati2027/event. Our abstract review is going to start soon.
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J.-Martin Hohberg
Dr.sc.techn, M.ASCE FED
Sr. Consultant, IABSE e-Learning Board
Bremgarten / Berne, Switzerland
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