Performance of school buildings during the Molise earthquake sequence of October 31, November 1 2002

The authors inspected about 300 primary and secondary schools in 87 municipalities of Molise. About 40% were masonry structures, 40% were reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures, and the remaining 20% were a variety of structures. Almost all of them were built without seismic criteria and most had no more than three stories. In this paper we compare the distribution of the damage with the vulnerability classes. The collapses in San Giuliano di Puglia highlight the comparative vulnerabilities related to structural types, construction phases, and location.