No abstract

On November 26th 2019 the Mw = 6.4 earthquake struck the north-central Albania causing casualties and severe damage (IEMS = VIII) to the built environment, and in particular to the city of Durrës. This earthquake occurred not long after the Mw = 5.6 earthquake on September 21, 2019. In January 2020, the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Technical Committee 133 Disaster Reconnaissance task group inspected the damaged buildings in the city of Durrës. The primary goal was to observe the damage to masonry infilled RC frame buildings built after 1990's, designed and constructed in compliance with contemporary structural codes. The most distinguished was in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OoP) very heavy damage or destruction of masonry infill wallslocal damage grades 4 or 5 -in compliance with EMS-98 scale. Damage to the RC frame structure was negligible to slight -local damage grades 1 or 2.