Massive earthquake in Turkey

[allisolm]

Such a sad situation all around.

Sadder by the minute. Over 23,000 dead now.

 

[Pohemi]

Something almost as shocking as the death toll are the number that have been made homeless. It's in the millions...that's just insane. It's going to take years for all the cleanup and to rebuild, and even if they started building tent cities for people who lost their homes, there's just no way to handle that many people.

 

[Saylick]

Welp. My company is sending a small team to Turkey to learn more about the earthquake and why so many buildings collapsed. I'm on the team.

If you guys are curious, I can keep y'all updated as it develops. Let me know.

 

[IronWing]

Welp. My company is sending a small team to Turkey to learn more about the earthquake and why so many buildings collapsed. I'm on the team.

If you guys are curious, I can keep y'all updated as it develops. Let me know.

Please do, good luck, and try to stay safe.

 

[Saylick]

Please do, good luck, and try to stay safe.

Thanks. While it's far from the firm's first earthquake reconnaissance trip, it is my first so I'm a little anxious, especially since I know that part of Turkey wasn't exactly safe 10 years ago and still isn't. Hopefully, all sides recognize this as a humanitarian crisis so there's less of an on-going conflict.

 

[Kaido]

Thanks. While it's far from the firm's first earthquake reconnaissance trip, it is my first so I'm a little anxious, especially since I know that part of Turkey wasn't exactly safe 10 years ago and still isn't. Hopefully, all sides recognize this as a humanitarian crisis so there's less of an on-going conflict.

Blows my mind that this appears to be largely a problem related to corruption, not the natural disaster of an earthquake. The summary is:

1. While earthquakes kill people, this apparently was a largely preventable disaster, in terms of building damage, deaths, and injuries
2. The government caved to corruption, which put their citizens in danger
3. They collected something like an estimated $40 billion dollars in earthquake taxes over the years, which appear to have been misused
4. They created a construction amnesty program that let builders off the hook for code compliance simply by paying a fine
5. They took away the procedure for letting the military easily respond to disasters

“This is a disaster caused by shoddy construction, not by an earthquake,” said David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning at University College London.

...

But experts said there is a mountain of evidence — and rubble — pointing to a harsh reality about what made the quakes so deadly: Even though Turkey has, on paper, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings crumbled.

...

Shortly before Turkey's last presidential and parliamentary election in 2018, the government unveiled a sweeping program to grant amnesty to companies and individuals responsible for certain violations of the country's building codes. By paying a fine, violators could avoid having to bring their buildings up to code. Such amnesties have been used by previous governments ahead of elections as well.

As part of that amnesty program, the government agency responsible for enforcing building codes acknowledged that more than half of all buildings in Turkey — accounting for some 13 million apartments— were not in compliance with current standards."

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-02-10/turkeys-lax-policing-of-building-codes-flagged-before-quake

"The Turkish military, which was on the scene to help carry out search and rescue efforts within hours after the 1999 earthquake, has also been weakened and politicized under Erdogan since the failed coup in 2016. Erdogan’s government dissolved a protocol enabling the armed forces to respond to disasters without instruction, one of the factors that explains the slow dispatch of troops to areas affected by the quake

Powerful earthquakes kill people, but they are more deadly in countries like Turkey, where building regulations aren’t enforced, unqualified loyalists fill key positions, independent state institutions do not exist, civil society organizations have been wiped out, and the interests of a corrupt few are prioritized above all else."

How Corruption and Misrule Made Turkey’s Earthquake Deadlier

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hollowed out state institutions, placed loyalists in key positions, and enriched his cronies—paving the way for this tragedy.

foreignpolicy.com

"The Turkish government is under growing pressure from the public and opposition parties over the use of an “earthquake tax” intended for disaster relief.

A charge on the use of internet and mobile phone services was introduced in 1999 following a quake that killed more than 17,000 people near the city of Izmit.

The charge, officially branded the Special Communications Tax, has raised an estimated 88 billion Turkish lira (roughly £3.8bn). But adjusting for changes in exchange rates since the tax was introduced, Turkish economists believe the fund should be worth more than £30bn."

Anger in Turkey over government's £30bn 'earthquake tax' as victims ask 'where is our money?'

The public, media and opposition politicians demand answers over revenue from tax introduced in 1999

inews.co.uk

 

[Saylick]

Blows my mind that this appears to be largely a problem related to corruption, not the natural disaster of an earthquake. The summary is:

1. While earthquakes kill people, this apparently was a largely preventable disaster, in terms of building damage, deaths, and injuries
2. The government caved to corruption, which put their citizens in danger
3. They collected something like an estimated $40 billion dollars in earthquake taxes over the years, which appear to have been misused
4. They created a construction amnesty program that let builders off the hook for code compliance simply by paying a fine
5. They took away the procedure for letting the military easily respond to disasters

“This is a disaster caused by shoddy construction, not by an earthquake,” said David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning at University College London.

...

But experts said there is a mountain of evidence — and rubble — pointing to a harsh reality about what made the quakes so deadly: Even though Turkey has, on paper, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings crumbled.

...

Shortly before Turkey's last presidential and parliamentary election in 2018, the government unveiled a sweeping program to grant amnesty to companies and individuals responsible for certain violations of the country's building codes. By paying a fine, violators could avoid having to bring their buildings up to code. Such amnesties have been used by previous governments ahead of elections as well.

As part of that amnesty program, the government agency responsible for enforcing building codes acknowledged that more than half of all buildings in Turkey — accounting for some 13 million apartments— were not in compliance with current standards."

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-02-10/turkeys-lax-policing-of-building-codes-flagged-before-quake

"The Turkish military, which was on the scene to help carry out search and rescue efforts within hours after the 1999 earthquake, has also been weakened and politicized under Erdogan since the failed coup in 2016. Erdogan’s government dissolved a protocol enabling the armed forces to respond to disasters without instruction, one of the factors that explains the slow dispatch of troops to areas affected by the quake

Powerful earthquakes kill people, but they are more deadly in countries like Turkey, where building regulations aren’t enforced, unqualified loyalists fill key positions, independent state institutions do not exist, civil society organizations have been wiped out, and the interests of a corrupt few are prioritized above all else."

How Corruption and Misrule Made Turkey’s Earthquake Deadlier

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hollowed out state institutions, placed loyalists in key positions, and enriched his cronies—paving the way for this tragedy.

foreignpolicy.com

"The Turkish government is under growing pressure from the public and opposition parties over the use of an “earthquake tax” intended for disaster relief.

A charge on the use of internet and mobile phone services was introduced in 1999 following a quake that killed more than 17,000 people near the city of Izmit.

The charge, officially branded the Special Communications Tax, has raised an estimated 88 billion Turkish lira (roughly £3.8bn). But adjusting for changes in exchange rates since the tax was introduced, Turkish economists believe the fund should be worth more than £30bn."

Anger in Turkey over government's £30bn 'earthquake tax' as victims ask 'where is our money?'

The public, media and opposition politicians demand answers over revenue from tax introduced in 1999

inews.co.uk

Yikes, if that's truly the case, then it's a damn shame.

We do these trips in hopes of learning something insightful, ideally either 1) confirmation that the building code works and it was only older buildings that were damaged, or 2) new buildings that followed the code were damaged, but not because they were improperly designed or built, but simply due to a lack of our understanding as code writers.

Corruption and cutting corners doesn't give us any real insight. I really don't want to go into this trip with my mind already made up, so I'll try to be as open minded as possible to see if there's a silver lining in any of this.

As an aside, I saw this reddit post about how the Chamber of Civil Engineers building remained relatively undamaged after the quake. Fingers crossed that I get to check it out.

 

[Pohemi]

Not even broken windows. Unreal.

Gov officials responsible for all of the bypasses on new construction code enforcement over the decades should ALL be culpable.

 

[Mai72]

Allah why?

 

[user73032783]

Let me point out a few more of the blatant problems that I didn't see mentioned until yet causing the unpreparedness to any earthquake in Turkey (which is one of the handful countries in the world that are most prone to earthquakes), and why the earthquake response also failed miserably, with search and rescue teams not being able to operate on 95 percent of buildings in the critical timespan of the first 48 hours.

- The head of Disaster Response Department, in AFAD (The state organization responsible for disaster and emergency management), is a theologist. His bachelors is theology, his masters is something about theology, even his high school is a theology-type high school (btw most high schools were converted to this type in the time of the current government).

- The government can just lose money magically. For example, the money collected for preventing earthquakes (more than 1.5 billion usd per year, on average, according to TRY/USD rates at the respective years, over the last 23 years) goes into a common pool where the government can use it for anything really. And they sure as hell didn't use it for what they were supposed to. This problem didn't start with the current government, but it wasn't reduced the slightest in the last 20 years. (I'm sure per the law citizens should be able to track where these moneys are spent, but in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth.)

- A more general problem that is also very important is that mainstream media is under the control of the government. The most obvious demonstration of this was when dozens of Turkish soldiers died in Syria and it wasn't in the news. In general, they try to keep this control hidden, they try to allow the minimum criticism possible to make it look like the media is independent. It's very annoying to observe this from the outside. They allow some limited presence of opposition figures in TV, and that's to give the illusion of neutrality, just to lure more people in, to not lose them all to the internet, where people can find some true independent media outlets. It's a well thought propaganda machine which deserves books written about it. This reduces accountability because they can bend the narrative however they want. This is especially effective with the older, rural, uneducated population. They also use the huge communication ministry and all its resources for party propaganda in social media, especially twitter.

- Use of state resources to spread and bolster Islam, not only to regulate religious sanctuaries. Diyanet, de jure the Religion Ministry, de facto the Islam Ministry, had a yearly budget of 2 billion dollars as of 2020. (This is, alarmingly, also higher than half of the other ministries: Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of EU Affairs, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and Ministry of Culture and Tourism) If we check the budget for AFAD the same year, it had a budget of 272.8 million dollars. A ministry whose mere existence in a democracy is a great matter of debate has this insane budget. It seems the strategy of the government is more to pray the disasters away, rather than preventing them or preparing an adequate response to them...

- There are also systemic problems in the application of the building safety regulations that would be better explained by someone who is familiar with the construction sector in Turkey. This problem started before the current government.

The government, specifically the current government, is the culprit for most of these. Overall though, it's not only and only the government's fault. President Erdoğan didn't come from Mars. He's a reflection of a large segment of the Turkish population. Turning the Religion Ministry into the behemoth it is wasn't an idea enforced on the Turkish population. It's supported by the huge majority of the people who voted for AKP. Everyone in Turkey knows the current government amassed all power to a single person. Everyone in Turkey knows Geography was basically removed from the high school curriculum, while religion was made a huge essential part of it. Everyone knows 8 times more of the taxes they give go to projects trying to make the younger generation more religious etc, rather than preparing emergency response mechanisms for these earthquakes. The majority still voted for AKP in every single election since their inception. That's why, until the Turkish society evolves into a more conscious, informed society, it will not be prepared for disasters like this, and more people will die sadly...

A change in government in the elections this year would be a huge first step though, and this seems likely to happen hopefully.

 

[Muse]

Let me point out a few more of the blatant problems that I didn't see mentioned until yet causing the unpreparedness to any earthquake in Turkey (which is one of the handful countries in the world that are most prone to earthquakes), and why the earthquake response also failed miserably, with search and rescue teams not being able to operate on 95 percent of buildings in the critical timespan of the first 48 hours.

- The head of Disaster Response Department, in AFAD (The state organization responsible for disaster and emergency management), is a theologist. His bachelors is theology, his masters is something about theology, even his high school is a theology-type high school (btw most high schools were converted to this type in the time of the current government).

- The government can just lose money magically. For example, the money collected for preventing earthquakes (more than 1.5 billion usd per year, on average, according to TRY/USD rates at the respective years, over the last 23 years) goes into a common pool where the government can use it for anything really. And they sure as hell didn't use it for what they were supposed to. This problem didn't start with the current government, but it wasn't reduced the slightest in the last 20 years. (I'm sure per the law citizens should be able to track where these moneys are spent, but in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth.)

- A more general problem that is also very important is that mainstream media is under the control of the government. The most obvious demonstration of this was when dozens of Turkish soldiers died in Syria and it wasn't in the news. In general, they try to keep this control hidden, they try to allow the minimum criticism possible to make it look like the media is independent. It's very annoying to observe this from the outside. They allow some limited presence of opposition figures in TV, and that's to give the illusion of neutrality, just to lure more people in, to not lose them all to the internet, where people can find some true independent media outlets. It's a well thought propaganda machine which deserves books written about it. This reduces accountability because they can bend the narrative however they want. This is especially effective with the older, rural, uneducated population. They also use the huge communication ministry and all its resources for party propaganda in social media, especially twitter.

- Use of state resources to spread and bolster Islam, not only to regulate religious sanctuaries. Diyanet, de jure the Religion Ministry, de facto the Islam Ministry, had a yearly budget of 2 billion dollars as of 2020. (This is, alarmingly, also higher than half of the other ministries: Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of EU Affairs, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and Ministry of Culture and Tourism) If we check the budget for AFAD the same year, it had a budget of 272.8 million dollars. A ministry whose mere existence in a democracy is a great matter of debate has this insane budget. It seems the strategy of the government is more to pray the disasters away, rather than preventing them or preparing an adequate response to them...

- There are also systemic problems in the application of the building safety regulations that would be better explained by someone who is familiar with the construction sector in Turkey. This problem started before the current government.

The government, specifically the current government, is the culprit for most of these. Overall though, it's not only and only the government's fault. President Erdoğan didn't come from Mars. He's a reflection of a large segment of the Turkish population. Turning the Religion Ministry into the behemoth it is wasn't an idea enforced on the Turkish population. It's supported by the huge majority of the people who voted for AKP. Everyone in Turkey knows the current government amassed all power to a single person. Everyone in Turkey knows Geography was basically removed from the high school curriculum, while religion was made a huge essential part of it. Everyone knows 8 times more of the taxes they give go to projects trying to make the younger generation more religious etc, rather than preparing emergency response mechanisms for these earthquakes. The majority still voted for AKP in every single election since their inception. That's why, until the Turkish society evolves into a more conscious, informed society, it will not be prepared for disasters like this, and more people will die sadly...

A change in government in the elections this year would be a huge first step though, and this seems likely to happen hopefully.

- The head of Disaster Response Department, in AFAD (The state organization responsible for disaster and emergency management), is a theologist. His bachelors is theology, his masters is something about theology, even his high school is a theology-type high school (btw most high schools were converted to this type in the time of the current government).

Aha! Excellent post!

I was the sole programmer for a mission critical application for our 200+ employee company headquartered in San Francisco (but with offices at various generally urban areas in the USA and globally) around 2000. I commuted to the S.F. location. I requested some privacy so I didn't make critical mistakes (and so I didn't go nuts), and managed by virtue of my entreaties to management to be eventually moved from a cubicle to a tiny office. I shared this tiny office with a Turkish immigrant, whose job had him out of our tiny space most of the time (my luck). He was quite an OK fellow, I had no problem with him. He volunteered a memorable idea one day, in a conversation, that religion was the problem. I inferred that religion in Turkey was more to blame for problems there than anything.

 

[Exterous]

Welp. My company is sending a small team to Turkey to learn more about the earthquake and why so many buildings collapsed. I'm on the team.

If you guys are curious, I can keep y'all updated as it develops. Let me know.

I think people here would be interested. Given my foray into architecture as a career I certainly am. Good luck. Stay safe.

 

[Pohemi]

Turkey probes contractors as earthquake deaths pass 33,000

Turkish justice officials are targeting contractors allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction after a pair of earthquakes on Feb. 6 collapsed thousands of buildings in southeast Turkey and northern Syria.

apnews.com

So they've started to scapegoat and detain/arrest construction contractors, but not surprisingly nothing about the government employees who passed and approved the code inspections, took bribes to look the other way, etc. I'm not surprised at all. It was likely done to quell the rising tension. Sorrow is slowly turning to rage among survivors.

Toll now >33K.

 

[kage69]

So horrible, I can't look at the pictures anymore. The people who have the strength to gather dead kids are just superhuman in my eyes. The building thing makes my blood boil, just like what happened in Haiti. Glad to hear they are already cracking down on those responsible, just need to include the regulators involved - and if not, may it make the elections an easy choice for the Turkish people.

I was really impressed that in the middle of a war for survival, Ukraine sent a team of 1st responders to Turkey. That's quite a comment on how much Turkish support against Russia meant to them I think.

Speaking of impressive...

https://imgur.com/uRoRDzA

https://imgur.com/yjJSSyu

 

[Pohemi]

Wow. That dog deserves a damn medal. It was running like the energizer bunny, too. JFC

 

[kage69]

Cats starting to pitch in too, wow

 

[Oric]

The death toll reached 30,000. Predicted over 100K+

Thanks for all nations and their citizens who have responded quicker than the Turkish Government, who has terribly failed in the initial 24 hours

Poland, Greece, Israel, Spain ... Kudos to your teams !!

The deadly mistake is buildings without proper building codes but the Turkish Government (i.e. Erdogan) kept the Military in their barracks, which could have saved up thousands in the first two days. History will never forget this.

 

[Captante]

This is so horrible.... this kind of corruption/scandal happens all over the world but it's not often we get such a direct demonstration of the repercussions.

IMO this is FAR more egregious than Haiti since Turkey has HAD been considered a "first world country" and is a full member of NATO. Her people had every right to expect better and the government must be held to a "higher standard".

Anyone familiar with Haiti's history shouldn't even be mildly surprised by what's going on down there right now.... that place is a 3rd world $hithole literally ruled by corruption.

 

[kage69]

So much worse than 99, what a nightmare. I heard 50k estimated the other day and I'm kind of not surprised it might be so much higher. I like that Blinken called Cavusoglu and said 'What do you need?' Now 85million in humanitarian aid is showing up, in Syria too. USAF involved.

Saw the Japanese teams got there fast, and have a lot of experience in this sort of thing. My heart really goes out to the Syrians, who don't have as much support and have to contend with the whiny bitch ass war criminal Assad on top of it all.

Oric you are in Instanbul right? None of your family affected hopefully. I wish you well in purging the corruption, to give future Turks a better chance at surviving what will happen again.

Güçlü kal

 

[Oric]

kage69: thank you for your warm wishes. Family is fine, some members of our company had relatives in the region, we sent vans to recover them and brought to safety & warm homes. The tragedy is two fold with harsh winter conditions, millions have to endure minus degrees (Celcius) outside. With presidential elections just 4 months away, the political side of the tragedy is getting lower and lower. The worst is yet to come, I am afraid

 

[Captante]

kage69: thank you for your warm wishes. Family is fine, some members of our company had relatives in the region, we sent vans to recover them and brought to safety & warm homes. The tragedy is two fold with harsh winter conditions, millions have to endure minus degrees (Celcius) outside. With presidential elections just 4 months away, the political side of the tragedy is getting lower and lower. The worst is yet to come, I am afraid

Keep us advised.

 

[Captante]

Wow. That dog deserves a damn medal. It was running like the energizer bunny, too. JFC

That really is incredible.... I'm not sure what good thing people did to deserve dogs but it must have been big!

 

[kage69]

Not sure if it's been linked already earlier, but cash is needed I intend to send more soon.

Turkish and Syrian survivors need water, emergency medical and heating equipment, various medicines stat. The sheer number of deceased means disease is right around the corner, if cholera hasn't started it will soon. Lots of children are already dead, time running out for many more.

 

[Oric]

Reports of dysentery is circulating in social media. If not bacterial or viral, the immune systems of the people are down with malnourishment, cold, and shock. It is not surprising to have bowel syndromes

 

[misuspita]

Also cholera and other niceties that appear in dirty and insalubrious conditions. Heard reports that Erdogan kept the army in the barracks for the first hours? Perfect timing to be ruled by a dictator in the making....