Wrenching scenes of survivors being dug out of collapsed schools and apartments after this week's earthquake in central China suggest widespread disregard for building codes in the rapidly urbanizing region, observers said Wednesday.
"There are lessons to be learned from this, and I think the main lesson is that codes need to be followed," said Reginald DesRoches, a civil engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Although widespread damage from Monday's magnitude-7.9 earthquake was "not terribly surprising," cities like Beijing and Shanghai -- where construction is more closely regulated -- would likely have fared better than the cities of Sichuan province, where the quake's epicenter was, DesRoches said. 
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All About China • Earthquakes
