Yes, I agree.. if you see my post a bit further down the page, I did bring the subject up:
http://www.earthwaves.org/wwwboard/messages/31075.html

There was also another deadly quake in Iran this week..but it was 6.0..

It has a whole lot to do with building codes and money.. nothing else. Unfortulately, where this size quake is a killer, there's just no money to buy such things as rebar. The homes will be rebuilt with mud bricks, right on top of what didn't fall down in this quake..

When I was in China, I saw them demolishing a building, by hand (hardly any laboe saving machinery in china) - and saving every bit of metal and rebar to use in new construction.

Canie