Press Conference- Feb. 3: Through His Images of Haiti, Cornell Engineer to Explain Construction Horrors Found in Earthquake Aftermath

Newswise — Entire schools were flattened, apartment buildings broken in half, cinder block homes crumbled into rubble and sewers collapsed.

Ken Hover, Cornell professor of structural engineering, who has just returned from Haiti to inspect earthquake damage, will speak at a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 3 at the World of Concrete convention in Las Vegas. The press conference, “Concrete and Masonry in the Recent Haitian Earthquake,” will be held in Room N253, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, at 3 p.m.

Media wishing to attend the press conference must obtain press credentials at the World of Concrete press room, Room N250, Las Vegas Convention Center. Steve Pomerantz, World of Concrete Press Office, can be reached at [email protected]. Blaine Friedlander, Cornell Press Office, can be reached at (607) 254-8093 or [email protected].

Hover recently returned from Haiti to assess the damage at the Cornell Weill Medical School’s affiliated GHESKIO clinic in Port-au-Prince, and other related facilities. While there, he took a thousand photographic images and noted that very little reinforced concrete is used in Haitian construction.

Hover says that many Haitian homes are built with masonry and concrete at the do-it-yourself level. He will point out construction flaws, in hopes that a rebuilt Haiti will use modern construction methods – and avoid catastrophe in the event of future earthquakes.