Today in Eastern Turkey at 15:41 Yerevan time, about 19 km away from city Van a major earthquake struck Van Province. Many buildings collapsed in central Van, in the village of Tabanli and in other neighboring territories. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a magnitude of 7.2 and depth of 20 kilometers, though Turkey's National Earthquake Monitoring Center reported a magnitude of 6.6 and depth of 5.0 kilometers. The magnitude of this quake is more than 1988 Spitak earthquake's. In Yerevan (192km away), the earthquake force residents to live their homes from high rise buildings.

Japan needs to stop building skyscrapers after the March earthquake traumatized office workers and residents in tall buildings, said billionaire Akira Mori, the president of Mori Trust Co to news agency Bloomberg. Mori, Japan's third-richest person, said the government should consider setting a standard height for new buildings at about 100 meters, a level for so-called base- isolation systems that shift and reduce the energy of quakes to work best. An increase in tenants' preference for office space on lower floors may also make taller buildings less attractive, he said. Developers such as Mitsui Fudosan Co., Japan's largest real estate company, have been erecting taller buildings and reclaiming land to utilize space in Tokyo since the postwar economic boom gathered pace in the late 1960s. That led to so- called pencil buildings, which sit on a small plot of land disproportionate to the building's height. "Instead of constructing pencil buildings, it's better to jointly work with other real estate owners and developers to redevelopment larger projects," said Mori. "That way, we can increase the value of real estate." The Landmark Tower in Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo, is Japan's tallest building at 296 meters and 58th in the world, according to the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The 73-story building was developed by Mitsubishi Estate Co., the nation's second-biggest developer, and completed in 1993. The tallest building in central Tokyo, which includes the city's five main wards, is the 248-meter Midtown Tower built by Mitsui Fudosan. The Tokyo Sky Tree, a broadcasting tower, will be the tallest structure in Japan at 634 meters when it is completed in December. Tokyo suffered little damage to its buildings in the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake, Japan's strongest. The nation has two magnitude-6.8 or larger earthquakes on average a year, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Even so, about 30 percent of 2,568 buildings in Japan are higher than 100 meters, or about 20 to 25 stories tall, according to estimates from Architectural Institute of Japan.

Innovative Composites International, a Canadian builder, will construct plastic homes for thousands of earthquake victims in Haiti. The units it will build are expected to cost less, but be stronger, more environment-friendly and easier to assemble compared to houses built using traditional construction materials. The technology involves combining high-strength fibers with low-cost plastic and making available structural applications in lieu of steel, concrete and wood with a strong, light and 100 percent recyclable material. An official of the Canadian Home Builders Association said wood, which is usually used for house framing in Canada, is not an ideal building materials for Haiti and in other countries with warm and tropical climates because of the need to treat wood for decay. The material that Innovative Composites will use is expected to withstand hurricanes and tremors. More than one million homes were destroyed by the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010. In October, Innovative Composites was named a finalist of the Building Back Better Communities housing competition in Port-au-Prince. The firm has as its partners for the project 3D Global Solutions and Barclays Gedi Group, which are private U.S. companies. Their consortium promised to deliver 5,000 houses yearly. The housing project, which is expected to cost $4 billion, would be divided among 6 to 10 developers. US$4-billion fund has been established under the stewardship of former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

Of course, you are afraid; otherwise, you are poorly informed about the problem. Do you know that in the report of Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery organization (2009) Armenia was ranked to be the first among all countries on vulnerability to earthquakes? The consequences from a possible earthquake may be particularly dire in Yerevan, where, by some expert estimates, in case of earthquake magnitude as in Haiti (2010) or in Spitak (1988), about 80% of all buildings will collapse. A possible strong earthquake in Yerevan will have destructive consequences for our State, forcing many people to leave Armenia and making almost impossible the future restoration of the country and the Capital. We have seen the "rebuilding" after earthquake in Spitak that is already lasting for 21years, and follow the reconstruction process after earthquake in Haiti. The conclusion is the one- despite the huge funds allocated, it is almost impossible to organize recovery work in the chaos resulting from the earthquake. Even in the Rosy Scenario of the reconstruction, anyway, we can not refund hundreds of thousands of lives lost. What are we waiting for? Especially today, we need to restructure almost all of our hospitals and schools, governmental and residential buildings. They were all built without observing new earthquake resistance standards. In case the government has no enough financial resources for large-scale nation-wide restructuring program, it is essential to start with at least one earthquake-proof hospital!!! Natural disasters are raging in the world much more frequently, making it harder and harder to confront them, while the assistance of states is not unlimited. All interested persons are welcome to leave comments and share thoughts on this issue, and be conscious of the problem and do everything possible to resolve it.