HOUSTON – (Aug. 15, 2021) – Rice University Provost Reginald DesRoches, a professor of civil and environmental engineering with expertise in structural engineering, is available to discuss this weekend’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Haiti.
DesRoches, who is of Haitian descent, served as the key technical leader in the United States’ response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, taking a team of 28 engineers, architects, city planners and social scientists to study the impact of the event. He has also testified before Congress on the critical role university research must play in addressing the country’s failing infrastructure and enhancing the nation’s resilience to natural hazards.
“It’s comparable, if not bigger than the previous one,” DesRoches said of the powerful earthquake that struck Haiti’s southwest Tiburon peninsula, in a more rural area of the country, about 60 miles west of where the 2010 earthquake happened near Port-au-Prince, the most heavily populated area in the country. “It’s more shallow, which means it’s going to produce more shaking. The saving grace is that the area is not as populated as Port-au-Prince.”
DesRoches said that some experts had expected the next big earthquake to occur in the northern part of the country because of geological stresses that have built up, but Saturday’s event underscored another reality of earthquakes.
“This is what they do,” he said. “These are unusual phenomena, and you just never know when and where they are going to happen.”
DesRoches is the Howard R. Hughes Provost of Rice University, and a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of mechanical engineering. He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the society’s Structural Engineering Institute. He also chairs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee, formed in 2002 to investigate building failures.
NCST probed the World Trade Center collapse and the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, and is conducting investigations into the Surfside building collapse in Florida, the Joplin, Missouri, tornado disaster and damage caused by Hurricane Maria.
For interviews, contact Doug Miller, 713-348-6770, doug.miller@rice.edu, or Jeff Falk, 713-348-6775, jfalk@rice.edu.
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