Fighting for survival - Rebuilding Turkey and Syria, the human cost
Turkish officials have confirmed rescue efforts will wind down in all but two areas of the country.
A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake took thousands of Turkish and Syrian lives, and both rescue workers and survivors must deal with the traumas of the tragedy.
Estimating the financial investment needed to rebuild towns and cities in southern Turkey, and northern Syria tells only half of the story of the February 6th earthquake, because we may never truly understand the human cost. Resilience is key to maintaining good mental health, but there isn't a one solution 'fits-all' approach to prevention/recovery.
The mind works in amazing ways, and people can adapt quickly to their surroundings, especially when they are under duress. It was intriguing to learn about the Yeninar brothers, aged 21 and 17, who were trapped for over 200 hours under the rubble of a collapsed building, in the city of Kahramanmaras.
According to the New York Times, the brothers survived by drinking their own urine, eating protein supplements, and gulping limited amounts of air. Rescue workers pulled from the rubble them, but their real ordeal starts now, because nobody can predict how the terrifying experience will affect them.
In Syria, Sakhaa al-Mousas spoke to Al Jazeera to recount her terrifying ordeal, when the three-storey building she and her family were in collapsed, trapping them.
“I started screaming, hoping that someone outside could hear me. I could hear the rescuers but they couldn’t hear me. So I grabbed a rock and started banging it on one of the walls above me. Being buried alive is such a frightening feeling. When the second quake happened, I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way I’ll survive this. There’s no way I’ll see the light of day again.” Sakhaa al-Mousas, via Al Jazeera
Bobby Ghosh, writing for Bloomberg believes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should start the country’s rebuilding program with a Mea Culpa (a Latin phrase for My Fault). Ghosh’s comments relate to Erdogan’s excuses and ignorance towards poor building regulations.
The M7.8 and M7.5 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence struck near Nurdağı, approximately 60km north of the Syrian border. There is little left of Nurdağı and survivors must hope the Turkish government responds quickly to the devastating events.
Turkey is susceptible to earthquakes, which is why people are angry at building contractors for cutting corners on construction projects. Many developments were completed without adhering to strict building regulations. Rebar, also known as reinforcement steel, is used globally to strengthen buildings, the mesh of steel wires strengthens and holds the concrete in tension. In many buildings across Turkey, rebar was not used. When construction directors make savings at the expense of safety, it can have terrible consequences.
Turkey is squeezed by a giant tectonic vise. The Arabian subcontinent is shoving northward, and it’s pushing Turkey north against basically a fixed boundary of northern Europe. And so what happens is Turkey is squeezed outward to the west, where it spills into the Mediterranean and ultimately gets shoved underneath Crete in a subduction zone like we see off Japan. Scientific American
Andrea Thompson, writing for the American Scientist explained what she found in the aftermath of Izmit earthquake in 1999. “So we were inside this failed manufacturing plant, and I could see there was a big crack at one of these joints—big enough that I could get my hand in to see how many reinforcing rods were in there. I put my hand in, and I pulled out a hunk of Styrofoam. The world would be a safer place if concrete was translucent. This is the problem: it’s too easy to cheat.”
50 miles to the south west of the earthquake’s epicentre lies the town of Erin. Its mayor spoke to the New York Times, stating not one building fell in his town, and not one resident of Erin died. According to Omar Emre, a geomorphologist, soil condition is the main reason why buildings did not collapse. Emre went on to say that many settlements in the area sit on the top clay, sand and silt of an ancient riverbed.
Antakya, an ancient and a key staging post on the Silk Road, is located 50km inland from the Mediterranean coast. Citizens there are without water, electricity and basic sanitation. Mothers and fathers are hunkered down in cars with their children to avoid the harsh winter.
52-year-old Saba Yigit cooked a few peppers and a carrot on a small fire. Her family, like many thousands, is reliant on food from aid workers. It’s also a dangerous situation for the civil engineers, charged with inspecting earthquake damaged buildings. Pinarbasi, a Turkish engineer, inspected many of Antakya’s building to find overstressed columns.
More than 46,000 died in Turkey and Syria, and the mental scars may never heal. Turkey’s citizens are angry with the president, and despite claims that rebuilding will start soon, it could take generations to rebuild the lives of those affected by the earthquake.
Syrians have faced their own challenges in recent years, and according to the Evening Standard, thousands of Syrians who had sought refuge in Turkey from the civil war have returned to their homes in the war zone.
The human cost of war and natural disasters in the region seems incalculable. Humanitarian aid is the only hope for thousands of survivors in two countries trying to come to terms with what has happened.
Thank you for reading the Woz Report, please encourage your family, friends and colleagues to subscribe. I’ll be back next week.
Twitter @WozWrites
Another great read John lots of food for thought, especially the corruption that parts of the wild have to live with. Keep the Woz reports coming.