Two hotel buildings in Hailuogou, the epicenter of the earthquake, collapsed. Can wooden structures be earthquake-proof?

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred in Luding County. The Hailuogou Scenic Area was seriously damaged in the earthquake, and the hotels in the Hailuogou Scenic Area were seriously damaged. Staff at the Changzheng Hotel, located at the epicenter of the earthquake, said two hotels had basically collapsed. ?Daxi Huaying Resort Hotel? The hotel is located at the epicenter and has strong earthquakes. The store collapsed directly from the second floor, and the entire building tilted. Four people were buried in the store, three were rescued, and the other died after resuscitation failed. Hotel owner Mr. Xu said that his hotel is made of wooden materials. He was on the sixth floor when the earthquake hit, and now the whole building has collapsed. Now, Mr. Xu is working with hotel staff and former rescue workers to rescue other trapped people.

The excellent seismic performance of wooden structure houses is due to their good solidity and high toughness, which can buffer and resist strong impacts in a very short period of time. Moreover, wood is elastic, so it has strong recovery properties under the action of external forces. This is why wooden houses use their toughness and resilience to avoid collapse when strong earthquakes occur. Maybe you still have some concerns and doubts. Let’s cite two world-famous examples, namely the earthquakes in Kobe, Japan, and Los Angeles, USA, in the last century. The reason why these two major earthquakes are still remembered by people is that the earthquakes that occurred in these two places were very strong and destructive. Roads were severely damaged after the earthquake, but what shocked the world was that very few people were injured or killed in the earthquake. Why? Thanks to the high penetration rate of wooden structure houses in these two countries, the wooden structure houses after the earthquake only deformed but did not collapse, thus saving many lives and property losses. Because of this, the Japanese government later explicitly supported the maximum use of wooden houses.

I have been to Hailuogou and was impressed by the Daxi Film Resort Hotel. It is a relatively large-scale hotel. The shaking of buildings indicated that the earthquake was very powerful. There are so many earthquakes in Sichuan, so the earthquake resistance of houses needs to be considered, especially buildings with densely populated buildings like school hotels. If such a hotel is built in a scenic spot in an earthquake area, it must feel safe.