What confounds me is the apparent lack of effort to get to potential survivors. It always looks the same every time a see an updated photo of the devestation. Are they even trying to dig the missing out?
Unfortunately, civil engineering currently has no solution for rapid rescue in such situations. Concrete and steel are in a tangled pile. You'd think you can remove stuff piece by piece, but there will be lots of tangled ones (due to rebar in concrete) and for each one you will be risking collapse further down.
What confounds me is the apparent lack of effort to get to potential survivors. It always looks the same every time a see an updated photo of the devestation. Are they even trying to dig the missing out?
Unfortunately, civil engineering currently has no solution for rapid rescue in such situations. Concrete and steel are in a tangled pile. You'd think you can remove stuff piece by piece, but there will be lots of tangled ones (due to rebar in concrete) and for each one you will be risking collapse further down.