SAN DIEGO -- Officials said buildings in Haiti, especially hospitals, could not withstand the power of Tuesday's massive earthquake.

In California, a state law says hospitals need to be earthquake-safe, and 10News reporter Mitch Blacher spoke to experts to determine if state hospitals are ready for a possible quake.

"It's definitely a third-world, under-developed country. Construction and inspection techniques are substantially less," said John Norwood, chief engineer of the VA Hospital in La Jolla.

How prepared are hospitals in San Diego County?

"For any natural disaster, the place I want to be is this hospital (VA Hospital in La Jolla)," said Norwood.

Norwood said the hospital is ready and the retrofit can now withstand a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

"The project took 2-and-a-half years; it's a $57 million project," said Norwood.

Following the 6.7 Northridge earthquake in 1994, a new California law "SB 1953" required all acute care hospitals to be earthquake-ready by January 2008. That meant new buildings had to meet the code and old buildings had to be retrofitted to comply with the law.

Some hospitals like Rady's Children's Hospital have finished their retrofit, but many others have received extensions.

10News asked hospital staff members from all over the county about how prepared their facilities are.

10News learned the University of California, San Diego Medical Center was done with a retrofit, while local Kaiser hospitals, Sharp facilities and Pomerado Medical Center in Poway said they were already compliant.

Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside meets the requirements with the exception of one staircase that needs to be fixed.

Palomar Medical Center received an extension to retrofit their downtown hospital, and Scripps is currently working on seismic upgrades to meet the extended 2015 deadline.

The state law is about making California hospitals safe before, during and after an earthquake. However, the problem has been funding, and many hospitals need the extension to get money to pay for the fixes.

UCSD Studies Aid In Keeping Buildings Safe

It's conventional wisdom among California seismologists that Southern California will be hit by an earthquake similar to the one that hit Haiti.

Though it is clear there will be damage, it won't be anything like what Haiti is dealing with, thanks to advances in building standards. Structural engineering research being done throughout the University of California system is advancing the understanding of how to keep buildings safe during strong earthquakes. Much of that work is being done at UCSD.

"In Haiti, we are dealing with structures that are similar in a way to the construction we used to do 100 years ago here in the U.S.," said Jose Restrepo, professor of structural engineering at UCSD. "Those are structures that do not incorporate any seismic design provisions that are very precarious where they are built."

Restrepo talked to 10News about seismic advances being made in schools throughout the University of California system. "Every one of us chips in and we are working in a collaborative environment to see what is best for our region and trickle down to all the regions in the world," he said.

One example of modern seismic technology in use in San Diego is found at the county's Emergency Services headquarters. It utilizes a system called base isolation. The building sits on 29 base isolators which are really like big shock absorbers. Restrepo said with this design, "The earth shakes and the building stays put with very little transfer of energy up to the building."

Restrepo found his mission as a seismic scientist while studying civil engineering in 1979 in his home country of Colombia. He was there when a violent earthquake struck. Now, he's proud to work in a profession that strives for the public good.

"We are working for the benefit of society. That's the main interest for us," said Restrepo.

Problems With San Diego Structure Foundations?

While building standards in California are among the strongest in the world, local geologist Pat Abbott said the buildings themselves are not the problem, and cites what lies underneath and the location of a potential earthquake in the county as subjects to worry about.

"The building codes give us quite good houses and apartment buildings these days, so it's more a matter of foundation problems," said Abbott. Experts like Abbott said it is what's under a building -- its foundation -- that is critical.

In most areas of San Diego, the foundation is solid rock. However, there are large areas in the western part of the city that are at high risk -- areas that were not there thousands of years ago.

"The whole area between the mouth of Mission Valley and Point Loma, that's all river sediment, sands brought in by the San Diego River in the last few thousand years," said Abbott.

The sandy ground makes those areas prone to a destructive process called liquefaction. Iconic structures like the SeaWorld Tower sit on land that is at risk.

"There's water between those sand grains, and earthquake waves can throw those sand grains apart, which means your foundation is no longer solid," said Abbott. "You can literally have buildings sink some, tilt, be subjected to some stresses."

Abbott said you can reinforce walls using metal angle joints, which will help a structure hold together during liquefaction when the ground underneath becomes violently shifting sand.