Post by Risk Market News

This week on the Risky Science Podcast, we focus on the recent earthquake in Venezuela. A pair of powerful earthquakes tore along the San Sebastián fault and devastated Caracas—buildings collapsed, the airport shut down, and the death toll climbed in a country already facing political upheaval. To make sense of it, we spoke with Ziggy Lubkowski, FICE, geotechnical earthquake engineer and Arup's global seismic expert, who has spent nearly forty years studying why some buildings stand and others fall—from Banda Aceh to Turkey to California. One idea from our conversation has stayed with me: **for every $1 spent before an earthquake, it costs $6 to reach the same position afterward.** As Ziggy explained, the global community is moving forward. Key facilities—hospitals, schools, fire stations, critical bridges and ports—are increasingly designed to a much higher specification so they stay operational when they're needed most. In the 2023 Turkey and Syria earthquakes, a number of newly built hospitals survived two major quakes in close succession because they were built on isolation bearings—large rubber bearings that act like shock absorbers. They were able to do their job immediately after the earthquakes. And it isn't only hospitals: schools, community hubs, roads, rail, and airports all have to hold so emergency services can move and international aid can get in. The challenge is that prevention is invisible. We can't fix old building stock overnight—no one has that kind of money—but we can set higher targets and invest up front, as Italy has done with its school improvement program. In the full episode, we also get into why the debate over "one earthquake or two" matters on the ground, how a fault everyone knew was dangerous still caused this much damage, why early loss estimates swing by billions of dollars, and where a fragile economy with almost no earthquake insurance should spend its first dollars. 🎧 Full conversation on the Risky Science Podcast. https://lnkd.in/dkTCAua6 #Earthquake #Infrastructure #Venezuela #Insurance #Reinsurance

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