Impressive commentary on the earthquakes that rocked Turkey: death is not inevitable

US-based media organization Bloomberg published a comprehensive analysis of the earthquake disaster that struck Turkey… In Gearoid Reidy News, “Earthquakes are not inevitable. A higher death toll is inevitable”, while “Better construction standards are necessary so that the earthquake does not become a catastrophe like in Turkey and Syria. The United States should pay attention to this.”

Although earthquakes are reported in the news as inevitable and unpredictable, it is possible to escape when approaching Category 5 storms and tornadoes, or to flee to safety when a volcano erupts. But when the earthquake happened, there was no warning. Even in the most technologically prepared countries, the earthquake is noticed a few seconds before and the trains stop.

Erdogan’s words were remembered in the analysis.

REMEMBER ERDOGAN’S WORD

“We can say that Turkey and Syria are among the countries most prepared for earthquakes. The number of people who lost their lives in the earthquakes exceeded 50,000 and is expected to increase. President Erdogan said that it was impossible to be prepared for an earthquake of this magnitude. What he said about preventing the earthquake is true. But as earthquake experts say, earthquakes don’t kill, construction does. The intensity of the earthquake cannot be reduced, but the damage is reduced by modern construction techniques. For example, advanced techniques such as seismic isolation are used in Japan.

In the analysis written by the Japan-based correspondent, it was stated that “in Turkey, where more than 300,000 buildings have been demolished, poor construction inspections and deceit in the quality of materials have already been exposed.” It has been observed that there is a building construction standard similar to that of Turkey in the US, and for this reason, the US is also at great risk.

“THEY DID NOT MAKE THE EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN, BUT THE TSUNAMI”

Although it was indicated that approximately 20,000 people lost their lives due to natural disasters in the last 12 years in Japan, it was recalled that only 5 percent of them died from the earthquake and the rest from the tsunami that occurred after the earthquake. It was also claimed that tragic tests were made on the country’s building regulations and therefore strong buildings were built.

“In many reviews, it’s not very costly to raise building standards to levels that are beneficial. Over a long period of time, devastating earthquakes will hit the metropolises, but we don’t know when. Although developed countries like the US appear to be the safest in theory in the Covid epidemic, they may be the most fragile. The tragedy in Turkey and Syria should be a wake-up call.”