The February 6, 2006, February 6 earthquake in Turkey: The vulnerability of people in Turkey to Earthquakes and floods, as described by Seyhun Puskulcu
Turkey’s government said search and rescue teams have pulled more than 8,000 people from underneath the rubble of thousands of toppled buildings in the past two days. But worries grew that survivors may succumb to their injuries or hypothermia, due to worsening weather conditions in the region.
In the middle of the night of February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria. At least 5,000 people have lost their lives, and thousands more have been injured. The quake was followed by a magnitude-7.5 event some 9 hours later, as well as more than 200 aftershocks.
Seyhun Puskulcu, a seismologist and coordinator of the Turkish Earthquake Foundation, based in Istanbul, says people in Turkey are well aware of their vulnerability to earthquakes. Puskulcu was on a tour of the cities of Adana, Tarsus and Mersin, as well as parts of western Turkey last week, giving workshops on earthquake awareness.
In the city of Antakya, resident Hamideh Mansulolu stood outside what used to be the seven-story residential building where she lived with her family, waiting to hear whether her son, Sedat, survived.
The earthquake hit the Anatolian Plate and destroyed buildings in Turkey after the 1999 quake: Aid and relief efforts vs humanitarian sanctions
Aid groups consider the first 72 hours after a natural disaster as crucial for rescuing survivors. The US says sanctions do not include humanitarian assistance, even though the government of Syria blames them for slowing relief efforts. Regardless, northern Syria lacks the heavy equipment and other infrastructure to come to the aid of the hundreds of thousands displaced by this disaster, and the only U.N.-authorized road from Turkey to that region has been damaged by the quake.
Iran, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates have sent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid to Syria, and dozens of countries have sent aid to Turkey, including more than 5,000 rescue workers who are arriving in the disaster area.
More than 380,000 people who were temporarily displaced by this disaster have been given emergency shelter with more than70,000 tents, according to Turkey’s emergency management agency.
Many people were killed and tens of thousands were injured in the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in more than 100 years.
Most of Turkey sits on the Anatolian plate between two major faults: the North Anatolian Fault and the East Anatolian Fault. The tectonic plate that carries Arabia, including Syria, is moving northwards and colliding with the southern rim of Eurasia, which is squeezing Turkey out towards the west, says David Rothery, a geoscientist at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. “Turkey is moving west about 2 centimetres per year along the East Anatolian Fault,” he adds. “Half the length of this fault is lit up now with earthquakes.”
In 1999 there was an earthquake that killed more than 17,000 people and left a quarter of a million homeless. The new building codes and compulsory earthquake insurance system were introduced by the Turkish government. Many of the buildings affected by this week’s earthquake were built before 2000, according to a civil engineer.
Deaths in earthquakes are often caused by falling bricks and masonry. According to the US Geological Survey, many people who were in Turkey when the earthquake hit are still living in structures with unreinforced brick masonry and low-rise concrete frames.
Building standards are hard to enforce in Syria, where more than 11 years of conflict have made it difficult. The buildings collapsed in Syria’s northwestern regions after the earthquake. Some war-damaged buildings in Syria have been rebuilt using low-quality materials or “whatever materials are available”, says Rothery. “They might have fallen down more readily than things that were built at somewhat greater expense. He says that they haven’t yet found out.
Heavy machinery has been increasingly brought into areas where a day earlier cautious searchers relied on their hands to dig through the rubble. The risk posed to those trapped alive must be weighed against their chances of surviving many more hours in the bitter cold.
The body of a 4-year-old girl wrapped in a pink blanket was brought out Wednesday from the wreckage of a building in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras. She is among the latest victims of Monday’s massive earthquake.
A man who was believed to be a Syrian refugee in his 40s was dug out of a mattress by excavators, like a lot of those who died in the wake of the earthquake.
Rescue workers were trying to reach the people thought to be alive in a neighboring building that also collapsed. A generator was brought up to power a pneumatic hand-operated drill; the man directing it cleared away the rubble with his bare hands.
He appeared to have spotted signs of life beneath the wreckage, but rescuers sent away a waiting ambulance, saying there was still a lot of work to do.
There are 350 bodies in the Kahramanmaras hospital’s morgue that have not been taken to relatives because of their family members’ deaths, according to a man volunteering at the hospital.
Erdogan’s visit to the Kahramanmaras earthquake-rescue effort intl-Cmd: A televised briefing
Flanked by officials, he visited an emergency relief area set up by the country’s disaster management agency, AFAD. Row after row of shining white tents could be seen in the sports stadium, destined to house some of the thousands of families who’ve lost their homes.
In a televised briefing from the relief center, Erdogan said the government’s target was to rebuild the Kahramanmaras region “in one year” and that people would get help with emergency housing.
When it comes to citizens staying on the streets, they can’t. The state is taking advantage of all the resources it has. We will continue to do so.”
He acknowledged that the government had some problems in terms of gas supply and roads, but said the situation was under control. He said that the government will give 10,000 Turkish liras to help families impacted by the earthquake.
The majority of buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras have been damaged by the earthquakes, and newer buildings higher up the valley have suffered less damage.
Many people could be heard crying and moaning by the buildings where their relatives lived until disaster struck at the bottom of the city.
A handful clutched photographs of loved ones who are under the rubble, less in hope of their rescue than as an act of remembrance – holding out snaps of their children or wedding pictures and saying “they are gone.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/europe/kahramanmaras-turkey-quake-rescue-efforts-intl-cmd/index.html
Aid agencies warned on the consequences of a three-month state of emergency for Turkish provinces and their displaced residents in a multi-confining environment
Aid agencies warned on the consequences of a three-month state of emergency in Turkish provinces, where millions of vulnerable and displaced people were already relying on humanitarian support.