Measuring losses and lessons from Turkey’s ongoing earthquake disaster
The following is an excerpt from a maintain what blog post.
source: usgeological survey
As dire news continues to emerge from the world’s latest major earthquake, here are some broader implications and thoughts to weigh in: 7.8 magnitude earthquake (and a Dozens of aftershocks of magnitude 7.5) destroyed hundreds of cities, towns and villages and claimed thousands of lives in southeastern Turkey and along the Syrian border.
Social media and news reports are flooded with Absolutely chilling video Images of countless collapsed buildings and frantic searches for trapped relatives and colleagues were shown.
More than 1,600 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria, where two powerful earthquakes and dozens of aftershocks brought down thousands of buildings. The death toll is likely to continue to rise.https://t.co/AyB8HNjZkf pic.twitter.com/NsqGZmBNkE
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 6, 2023
Pause for a moment and think about something you saw on TV or on a news site.
As earthquake engineers emphasize, most of the time it’s the buildings that kill people, not the shaking itself.
I first reported this reality in 2009 in a front page story in Istanbul, Turkey New York Times About a megalopolis at great risk from an impending major earthquake. I spent a day exploring the poor and middle-class neighborhoods of the sprawling metropolis with Mustafa Elvan Cantekin, who at the time was leading a neighborhood disaster support project funded by the Swiss development agency.
Cantekin points out over and over that buildings with “soft floors” — buildings with ground-level retail space that have little reinforcement to support heavier residential floors above, or where upper floors protrude beyond the dimensions of the ground floor for tax purposes — Or a home that adds floors as the family expands.
He and some other earthquake engineers I’ve interviewed over the years have called the structure “rubber in waiting.”
Sadly, many videos of deadly collapses in southeastern Turkey show buildings exactly like the ones we visited.
There is a persistent global challenge facing communities that have expanded over the past few decades into areas facing extreme but sporadic threats, such as major earthquakes, resulting tsunamis, major volcanic eruptions, or, in climate terms, megadroughts Or the most extreme atmospheric river flooding.
It is very difficult to demolish, move back or remodel on a large scale.
read the rest of the post On the Sustain What blog.
