After an earthquake, will people have to come check my apartment building?

Question

it was a 5.8 and i was about 15 miles away. if you live in california, you probably know what im talking about. will they have to come inside my apartment or anything? someone said they would and i just want to be sure.

Answer 1

I was in the Marina Dist. (San Francisco) during Loma Prieta where we did have significant damage.

City Inspectors checked out most of the structures on the areas of known landfill and any structure that showed significant damage.  The priority was identifying which buildings were to dangerous to occupy or ready to collapse.  

Yellow cards went to structures that could be safely emptied of personal belongings.

Red cards went on buildings that needed immediate demolition and were to dangerous to enter.  Too bad for the occupants and their personal property.  In some of the Red Card buildings, the occupants were given 15-30 minutes to get their stuff out, good luck if the building collapsed while we were in there.  Helped several friends throw stuff out the windows to the street.

Now, will they come into your specific apartment?  Only if required to do their job.  They're busy and have a lot of places to inspect so they're not likely to pay attention to personal stuff unless it's in their way...and only to move it.

I was doing Hazmat work at the time.  I only stopped to eat and sleep for a few weeks afterwords.  Way too busy in city owned building crawlspaces looking for damaged asbestos, etc.

In today's quake in L.A. a 5.4 or so, it's unlikely unless requested by the owner or there's significant externally visible damage or the tenants file a complaint.

Answer 2

If I were the owner, I would at least do a cursory external structure inspection (cracks, missing stucco, leaning, etc.) and then do a spot check of a few units. I would probably also put a notice out to all residents to report any damage that might have occurred from the earthquake. If they do an inspection, they should give you 24-hours notice, though.

I've been living is So Cal all my life and a 5.8 is right on the border of whether it would cause significant damage. In fact, I think the USGS just downgraded it to a 5.4. So, I wouldn't anticipate much damage.

I do remember a 6-point-something that hit Santa Ana a couple of decades ago that caused a lot of non-reinforced brick chimneys to topple and come crashing through people's roofs. But, they changed the building codes since then to require reinforcement or just a metal chimney. So, again, I wouldn't expect much damage from this one.

Answer 3

It really depends on your landlord or property manager, how much they care about your safety, and how much the quake shook your building.

Be safe and hide all your drugs and p**n just in case : -)

Answer 4

Only if the owner/management co wants to, and they have that right. They don't HAVE to though, unless maybe tenants complain about structural damage.  I felt it too! It freaked my daughter out, lol.

Answer 5

It is not likely that you even broke a cup, but in the event of a major quake they may enter to look for you.

The gas would be shut off at the valve, not inside your apartment.

Don't worry about the gas too much anyway, there is a ball in the pipe that is supposed to fall in a major shake and shut off the pipe.