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Tom Newby gravatar image

There are many different approaches to establishing the safety of buildings, but all require sufficiently trained personnel. There is normally a government-mandated approach to doing this, but if there is not, the best thing would be to approach the Coordinator of the Shelter Cluster in the Americas, Anna Pont (anna.pont@ifrc.org | Mob. +593 ( 0) 9 67443201): https://www.sheltercluster.org/response/ecuador-earthquake-2016

You could also approach Miyamoto, who undertook a large amount of damage assessment after the earthquake in Haiti: https://miyamotointernational.com/work-detail/haiti-damage-assessment/

One lesson from several disasters is that buildings deemed unsafe can be demolished and deemed safe can be lived in, but buildings deemed repairable leave the owners in limbo with a building that they can't live in and don't know how to fix. This should be considered when deciding what to do.