Among the efforts, Chinese officials ordered new buildings to use concrete reinforced with steel, while older buildings were to be retrofitted with reinforced concrete and masonry bricks.

WSJ: After China Quake, Efforts Turn to Recovery

Oklahoma state law also doesn't require schools to have fortified aboveground rooms, which can be built with reinforced concrete to withstand tornado winds, said Kevin Kloesel, director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, which offers statewide training in emergency management.

WSJ: Oklahoma Tornado: Long Minutes of Desperation Inside School Razed by Storm

It is sometimes used in combination with modern materials like reinforced concrete or steel for building houses and bridges.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | UN alert on threat to wild bamboo

The Environment Agency scheme includes a combination of hard defences, reinforced concrete walls with sheet metal cores and earth embankments.

BBC: Towns' flood defences in place

Behind the complex veil is a surprisingly simple reinforced-concrete box with a standard window wall and a conventional plan.

WSJ: Cooper Union's New Building, at 41 Cooper Square | By WSJ Architecture Critic Ada Louis Huxtable

Haitians tend to build walls with light concrete blocks which are not reinforced and they then use heavy concrete slabs for roofs and ceilings.

ECONOMIST: Rebuilding Haiti