LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County took the first step Tuesday toward a mandatory earthquake retrofit order for the types of concrete buildings that collapsed catastrophically in the devastating earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria, causing many of the 50,000 deaths tallied so far.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ask officials to prepare new rules that would require “non-ductile” concrete buildings owned by the county, as well as any located in unincorporated areas, to be retrofitted. Once the new rules go into effect, building owners would have 10 years to complete the retrofits.
The supervisors also ordered officials to create an inventory in unincorporated areas of all “soft-story” residential buildings — structures vulnerable to come tumbling down in the next big earthquake.
