Observations from the Bhuj earthquake of January 26, 2001

The devastating earthquake that struck the Kutch area of Gujarat, India on January 26, 2001, India's Republic Day, was the most severe natural disaster to afflict India since her independence in 1947. The devastation was major in terms of lives lost, injuries suffered, people rendered homeless, as well as economics. The author visited the affected areas between February 12 and 16, 2001, as a member of a reconnaissance team that was organized by the Mid-America Earthquake Center based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and funded by the National Science Foundation. This report is based partly on his first-hand observations from that visit and partly on information gathered from several sources, including other visiting teams, news reports and technical literature. The author touches upon seismological/geotechnical aspects of the earthquake and discusses the performance of engineered buildings. Bridges, non-engineered buildings and other structures are excluded from the scope. Precast concrete construction, including non-building uses of precast concrete, is discussed. In concluding the article, the building code situation in India is briefly commented upon.