.
Poorly, I'd like to add.
Our older houses are standing up to quakes far better than the recent ones. Houses are being built too rigid, and the result is foundation ruptures are becoming the rule rather than the exception in California.
Tell that to the residents of the Marina District in San Francisco. The results of the LOma Prieta shake of '79.
Of course, "old' along the east coast is a LOT older than old in San Francisco, where brick has not been used for residential or commercial construction, since 1906.
Maybe, but have you seen some of the pics from the VA quake? They showed a picture of a concrete block wall that had tumbled. There was no rebar and the web in the blocks was not filled with concrete.
How do you put up a two story cement block building with just mortor joints? I mean, how much extra does it cost to fill the webs with concrete?
I actually saw a guy building a house back east that turned the top row of blocks on their side and then used liquid nail to glue the wood plate to the block, did not even use J bolts.