The quake of magnitude 5.0 recorded this morning would force hundreds or thousands of structures to be re-inspected because of the possibility of further damage, the mayor of Guayanilla, Nelson Torres Yordán.
“Particularly, many of the yellow and green structures will have to be inspected”, he said in an interview with El Nuevo Día.
The municipal executive referred to the system that structural engineers are using to inspect homes and other properties after the January 7 earthquake and its aftershocks. If the structure is identified as “red”, it means that it was uninhabitable and may have to be demolished. If it is identified as “yellow,” it means that it has damages that can be repaired. If it is identified as “green”, it means that the structure is safe.
“This is a process that has to leave the same citizenship. There are many people insecure and fearful of being in their homes. It will be the citizens who ask that the properties be re-inspected. We have the team, ”said Torres Yordán.
In Guayanilla, structural engineers from New York City collaborate in the inspection of the properties, under a collaboration agreement. Every 15 days, a new team of New York engineers arrives on the island.
Until last night, according to the mayor, approximately 6,000 properties had been inspected and 2,200 remained to go through the process.
“To that we must add the inspections that will have to be redone from today’s event,” he said.
Because of the tremor, a wall and an arch were cracked where the municipal swimming pool of Guayanilla is built, next to the Luis A. “Pegui” Mercado stadium. “Both the wall and the arch are about to collapse,” Torres Yordán said.
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