Shoddy buildings the reason for many quake deaths

Many of the buildings that collapsed were poorly built to satisfy the greed of shyster developers

The cluster of earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria last Monday were bound to cause considerable death and destruction, but it is a truism that actually earthquakes don’t kill people, it is collapsing buildings that kill.

It is possible to construct buildings that can withstand any earthquake inside the maximum of 10 on the Richter scale – the one with its epicentre at Gaziantep was 7.8 on the scale and the one a few hours later Kehramanmarras 7.5.

The Richter measure is an electronic machine that converts the power of an earthquake into spikes on a graph calibrated to show its strength on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the theoretical maximum – earthquakes above 10 are both literally and destructively off the scale.

There have been earthquakes above 9, but the maximum of 10 has never been recorded. It does not mean it cannot happen, only that it has not happened yet.

The Earth’s crust comprises a number of tectonic plates that are in a state of flux and as they rub and push into each other along their edges known as fault lines, pressure builds up so much compressed energy it bursts outwards causing destructive tremors on land and tsunamis at sea.

In a major earthquake in Chile in 2014, 8.2 on the scale, there were only six deaths reported because an anti-seismic construction code was introduced and strictly enforced. What happened previously was that there had been two earthquakes over 9 on the scale in 1960 and 2010 that caused thousands to perish in the rubble of collapsed buildings and something had to be done.

Like Turkey, Chile sits on tectonic fault lines but unlike Turkey, Chile learned from bitter experience. Turkey had a 7.6 earthquake in 1999 along the North Anatolian Fault Line around the Gulf of Izmit near Istanbul where 17,000 died. You would think that after such a major catastrophe all buildings in Turkey would be constructed in accordance with an anti seismic construction code. A code was introduced there after 1999 – last updated on January 1, 2019 – but it looks as though many of the buildings that collapsed last Monday were of shoddy construction done to satisfy the greed of shyster developers.

Turkish President Erdogan on a visit to the affected region seemed to suggest that the death and destruction was the force of destiny – kismet in the jargon. The state was not responsible for natural disasters and politics should be kept out of a national catastrophe was his message calling for unity.

But if his government did not ensure enforcement of its anti seismic code and thousands perished, it should be held to account politically. It is too early to say if the cause of the extensive collapse of so many buildings was the strength of the earthquake and its shallowness rather than shoddy construction. It was probably a bit of both, but the state cannot just absolve itself of responsibility because it was the consequence of a natural disaster. It is the responsibility of the state to formulate and enforce anti-seismic building codes contingently and minimise the impact of earthquakes.

Turkey sits on a major seismic region and you would think that the Turkish state would have had worst case scenario contingency plans as the primary responder state. Basic plans should have been ready to swing into action with a sufficient number of tents to protect everyone from below zero temperatures, military and civil defence teams fully equipped to search and rescue from under the rubble within the crucial first 48 hours and hospitals and medical services geared to go immediately into action to deal with fractures and other injuries associated with collapsing buildings.

As of Friday the number who died under the rubble in Turkey and Syria was over 24,000. Those who survived find themselves in a cruel Catch 22: you need to be outside to avoid being crushed to death but if you stay outside you freeze to death.

In a limited sense Erdogan was right about the bad luck involved in this disaster. It was not just a strong shallow earthquake that made it more destructive, it also struck at 4 am when most people were asleep. There was another strong quake within a few hours, and, as if to block all avenues of survival for the weak and vulnerable, it happened in mid winter in below zero temperatures.

And yet questions still remain about the sheer number of collapsed buildings.

Despite the scale of the catastrophe the human spirit triumphs in the midst of all the death and destruction to lift the doom and gloom if only momentarily. A little girl was pulled out of the rubble and held aloft to cheers of joy and delight from the white helmets rescuers restored some hope and faith in humanity. Likewise when a baby girl was born in the rubble of a collapsed building in which all her family perished, and she was saved and brought to safety by rescuers who cut the umbilical chord from her dying mother to bring her out.

There are other miracles here and there, but the overall picture is one of unmitigated catastrophe everywhere in the region. Turkey, Cyprus, Greece and Italy all sit on tectonic plates, and no one can predict when the next one will be, so urgent anti seismic precautions are essential. I remember as a young boy when a powerful earthquake struck Cyprus with an epicentre off the coast of Paphos in September 1953.

We were living in Paphos at the time, and I remember the sequence of events distinctly even though I was only four and a half years of age. It was day break and my mother was in the back garden singing while she swept.

I was awake in our bedroom that overlooked the garden looking out of the window when suddenly the sky went dark, a wind rustled some dry leaves, the birds stopped singing, dogs began barking and the earth began to shake for what seemed an eternity. The British colonial administration provided us with a family tent immediately in which we stayed for a month until the all-clear.

The scary thing about earthquakes is that you do not just feel the earth shaking you can hear the sustained sound and fury of Mother Earth in destructive mood.

Alper Ali Riza is a king’s counsel in the UK and a retired part time judge