JCC Weather/Natural Disaster Discussion

The scale of the 2004 event is something hopefully we won't see again any time soon but 20k dead would be awful enough. Stories of efforts to rescue people trapped under collapsed buildings are always harrowing too. NPR had one this morning. I hope the relief money and equipment and expertise is flowing to where it is most needed.

 

I saw that an expert team of search and rescue dogs was headed that way yesterday from Mexico.. hopefully they are still able to find people alive today.

I am trying to keep the Sampoong department store collapse in mind here... In that case, 2 women were found alive over 10 days after the catastrophe.

 

UK sent a search and rescue team which arrived there about 24 hours ago as well.

 

The way Greece and Turkey have provided aid as it relates to earthquakes has its own Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek–Turkish_earthquake_diplomacy

 

I would imagine some of the locally based search and rescue groups here such as Operation Blessing are probably gearing up to head there as well.

 

Over 12K confirmed deaths so far. Very sad.

 

And already over 19k for Turkey and Syria, with more than 16k dead in Turkey.

 

Death toll is just under 20,000 now according to CNN.

 

There's over 4000 buildings collapsed, right? This happened at the early morning while everyone was asleep. It's gonna be high unfortunately.

I don't even know how these people begin to rebuild their lives. Or ... continue on as is. Even the buildings that don't appear damaged, might have hidden structural damages or may be compromised, and will have to be torn down. The entire area is unsafe. Another small earthquake or aftershock and who knows.

 

It’s going to be so many times more casualties than the current numbers. There are images of individual collapsed buildings that could have had 5,000 people in them when they collapsed.

 

Given the cold weather there, i doubt they will find many more survivors in the rubble.

 

NPR interviewed a geologist yesterday. They said an earthquake of this magnitude (apparently this was two huge earthquakes in close succession) will set off years of regular aftershocks and even other sizable Earthquakes. This really shook up the earth upsetting pressure points that now need to settle or break loose.

The geologist said yesterday they regions effected by the quake were feeling aftershocks multiple times an hour.

 

Yeah, least over 17000, but At this rate it's reasonably sad to think it could be over 40 or 50...

 

I think the episode is "Can You Hear Me?"

 

Official count is now at 41,000 for both Turkey and Syria. Miraculously they were still pulling out survivors as of yesterday - a full 175+ hours after the quake.

I don't know how anyone could trust any of those buildings now. Even the ones left standing look like they could crumble. And I saw a video highlighting how many of the building codes are overlooked, or ignored, where plumbing/pipes are cut through entire support beams of concrete, as if they don't exist. Its no wonder so many fell down instantly.

 

It's an astounding number. Not even the war in Ukraine has produced quite that many civilian deaths. Normally you need cruise missiles and war crimes to produce numbers like that. And yet so much of it is indeed human error if not malfeasance.

 

It's not just the buildings but the geography has changed as well. I saw a segment on CBS news that had an olive orchard in Turkey split in half and basically become a canyon.

 

In the 90s when lax building codes and corruption causes the Sampoong department store in South Korea to collapse, the public protested and called for investigations.

This resulted in engineering examinations of nearly every building in Korea built during the boom of the 70s-90s.

They found something like 75% were not up to code and made corrections.

I can only hope something like this happens in Turkey.... But I also don't have any confidence it will.

 

could be a higher end frack quake.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64711228 - another quake has hit southern Turkey - 6.4 magnitude. News is just breaking so no indication of further damage or casualties.