slightly weaker earthquake, of magnitude 5.2, hit the region again, causing very little damage, providing some
proof that self-regulation can work.
See: Lizarralde, Gonzalo (2010) in the Resources section.
3. Towards regional disaster mitigation: The Caribbean Uniform Building Code
(CUBiC)
CUBiC was originally developed with USAID funding as a set of codes and standards that could be used or
adapted by the 15 member and five associate member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and
was released in 1985. As most CARICOM states are small, utilising CUBiC avoid them having to develop their
own codes. CUBiC provided for the design of buildings against wind load and earthquake load with different
levels of intensity. However, there was only limited consideration of how winds and earthquakes had an impact
on different types of buildings and details about protecting low-rise non-engineered buildings, in which most
Caribbeans live and work, were not included. Only three states fully mandated the use of CUBiC for regulatory
control of building; in others compliance remained voluntary, or they continued to use their own codes and
standards. There also was not much of an effort to train and orient professionals and builders on CUBiC.
In 2003, the model codes for the Caribbean related to earthquake and wind loads were revised and extended
by experts from the Caribbean and Italy. This time, they included provisions for one and two storey residential
buildings. See: Faccioli, Ezio and Calvi, Gian Michele, Model Building Code for Earthquakes, 2003, for the
Association of Caribbean States, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, http://www.acs-aec.org/Documents/
Disasters/Projects/ACS_ND_001/SeismCod.pdf and Chin, Myron M. and Suite, Winston, Model Building Code
for Wind Loads, 2003, for the Association of Caribbean States, Port au Prince, Trinidad and Tobago, http://www.
unesco-ipred.org/gtfbc/WindCode.pdf
One Caribbean country that has been at the forefront of the development and application of codes and standards
has been St. Lucia. Hurricanes are the principle hazard here, although low magnitude earthquakes also occur.
St. Lucia has not fully adopted CUBiC, but uses a variant based on the codes specifically developed for the
Eastern Caribbean States under a collaboration of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and
UN-Habitat. Since 1996, the National Research and Development Foundation (NRDF) has been running a
programme of retrofitting the houses of low-income earners to improve hurricane resistance. This has included
awareness raising and training of builders and homeowners on the effects of storms on buildings and how to
make them more wind resistant. NRDF has produced a set of minimum standards for retrofitting. These contain
many photographs and drawings and are mostly written in an easy to understand way that both technical
specialists and most lay builders can make use of: Minimum Building Standards and Environmental Standards
for Housing, prepared by the Safer Housing & Retrofit Program, St. Lucia National Research and Development
Foundation, May 1997 & updated May 2003, available for download in six parts:
http://www.oas.org/cdmp/hrhip/documents/minstds/MinimumStandards_Part1.pdf
http://www.oas.org/cdmp/hrhip/documents/minstds/MinimumStandards_Part2.pdf
http://www.oas.org/cdmp/hrhip/documents/minstds/MinimumStandards_Part3.pdf
http://www.oas.org/cdmp/hrhip/documents/minstds/MinimumStandards_Part4.pdf
http://www.oas.org/cdmp/hrhip/documents/minstds/MinimumStandards_Part5.pdf
http://www.oas.org/cdmp/hrhip/documents/minstds/MinimumStandards_Part6.pdf
4. Matching standards to reconstruction realities in Kashmir, Pakistan
The Kashmir earthquake of October 2005 was massively destructive and resulted in the need to reconstruct half
a million houses, many of which were scattered rural settlements in remote mountainous areas. People in those
areas are highly self-reliant due to the terrain and the climate. Nearly every family had built its own house, with
occasional help from friends, neighbours or artisan builders. The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation
Agency (ERRA) of Pakistan, established to manage the reconstruction process, therefore adopted an owner-
driven approach to reconstruction. This created a problem of how to maintain standards over the very large
number of reconstruction projects taking place in a vast area.
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