Many Utah buildings could not withstand an earthquake

Many Utah buildings could not withstand an earthquake


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Marc Giauque reporting Hundreds of buildings were damaged in the earthquake in Wells, Nev., and many had similar construction. Officials say there are literally hundreds of thousands of such buildings along the Wasatch Front.

Utah's Division of Homeland Security earthquake program manager calls them URM's--older buildings with un-reinforced masonry. "We have just a whole bunch of those in the state. Salt Lake County, the Wasatch Front, probably about 185,000 of them," Bob Carey said.

Carey says that's a shaky-knees thing to think about had a 6.0 magnitude struck here. In fact, he thinks fatalities would have been likely. He says responding will be a monumental task.

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