7.8 Earthquake hits southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon

The death toll from this tragedy continues to sky rocket. It was 1k just a few days ago and now 25k+.

 

Arrests of building contractors in Turkey have started, with over 130 people arrested. Now how about the code inspectors who looked the other way, or the guy responsible for the amnesty of buildings that did not meet code?

Turkey arrests building contractors 6 days after quakes

 

Sort of how they now mark commercial buildings with signs indicating lightweight truss construction. They could do something similar for buildings that predate modern earthquake codes.

 

Turkey's Erdogan may be in political trouble over this earthquake. Turns out some of the shoddy builders are cronies and supporters of his. It's hard to believe he's been in office for two decades.

This earthquake could be the end of Erdogan

 

Qatar provides 10,000 mobile homes for quake-affected people in Syria, Turkey

Saw this. Pretty great use of those homes used during the would cup.

These people are going to need all the support they can get.

 

34K+ now

 

36K and rising. Some estimate when it's all over between 55 and 60 K deceased. Thats 3X the Japanese Tsunami.

I think Turkey may have an old fashioned beheading event for a bunch of contractors.................and DESERVEDLY so!

 

It's so emotional when the White Helmets pull one out. I have a hard time controlling my emotions, especially when women and children are recovered.

This is such a devastating and widespread event.

Drone footage really shows the extent of the disaster.

My heart goes out to Turkey and Syria.
Very soon it will be less about recovery and more about keeping the homeless alive.

Can you imagine the fear of trying to live back in your building if it did not collapse?

I have seen numerous videos of buildings just collapsing and there is no after shock. Like that Condo in Florida, they just fall.

I mean you may be talking about DECADES, just repairing buildings.

 

I will one up you ................ and just WHO gave the contractors the "look-away" for using and building with sub-standard or insufficient materials...............why a GOV'T EMPLOYEE of course.

 

No enforcement or corruption means any law or code is useless.

 

GOOD GOV'T AT WORK! Profit over the people! Ole Erdogan
helped people all right - Expedited their trip to Valhalla.

• Footage emerged of Turkey's president promoting a policy that weakened building standards, per local media.
• Ahead of 2019 elections, Erdoğan boasted of how the policy helped hundreds of thousands of people.
• At least 70,000 buildings in areas where last week's earthquake struck used the policy, experts say.

 

Reminds me of Hurricane Andrew, which fortunately didn't result in many deaths, was at the time the most expensive natural disaster in the US in terms of property damage. Although the destruction was largely attributed to inadequate building codes corruption in the inspections was also a major cause.

And whatever the code standards, there have been questions for years whether they were being adequately enforced amid the easy-money building boom of the 1980's. In 1987, a four-month investigation of payoffs in the Miami-area building industry led to the indictment of a building inspector and of 24 developers, contractors and homeowners. In 1990, a grand jury found numerous irregularities in building inspections, including inspectors routinely away from their jobs during work hours and inadequate enforcement of laws regulating contractors.​

AFTER THE STORM; Amid the Fallen Buildings, a Host of Questions About How They Were Built (Published 1992)

 

Looks like an old video may come to haunt Erdogan. He was filmed bragging about granting amnesty to builders of some of the same buildings that collapsed.

Resurfaced videos from 2019 shows Turkish president bragging about builders skirting earthquake construction codes in areas now turned to rubble

 

One town in the middle of all of the devastation was virtually unscathed by the quake: no dead, and no collapsed buildings. The difference? The town insisted that earthquake building codes be strictly followed.

The town that didn't collapse: How a tiny Turkish city avoided the earthquake's destruction

 

Another earthquake just hit the same area: Turkey and Syria rocked again by 6.3M earthquake

They will need all the support they can get. This is devastating.