A moderate size earthquake rocked Bihar-Nepal border at 4.40 hrs. on August 21, 1988 causing wide spread devastation leading to loss of many lives and economic loss to the people of that region. The paper describes the study of damages occurred in masonry buildings, reinforced concrete buildings and liquefaction of the soil. The weakness of construction causes of damage and lessons learnt from the performance of structures are highlighted. The traditional and old structures without any earthquake resistance measures has suffered greater damage. The new reconstruction and strengthening measures must take into consideration the experience of failure of structures
