I appreciate Adrian and GP's rather timely postings on this important topic. One reason the fatalities said to have increased drastically in Gujarat earthquake a few years back was due to collapse of several buildings attributed to faulty construction. Obviously the faulty construction was due to weak monitoring and prevalent corruption practices in approving the construction. From a haphazard construction point of view, even with a no so high Richter scale, we have a disaster in waiting. In Gujarat, many of the construction contractors and those officials who were involved in monitoring and approving went ?underground? for fear of public wrath. Can we learn a lesson from the Gujarat earthquake before the time runs out or while those officials are still ?above the ground??