That was encouraging. But it was no guarantee that they’d be able to get there under actual quake conditions — escaping tumbled buildings, gathering personnel scattered around various facilities, crossing jumbled, sunken ground and roiling water. “It would take us 20 minutes to get underway,” says Ivan Carlson, the pilot association’s president — barring severe disruption. That leaves nearly no time to stop at the Coast Guard station’s docks on the way out; what would they do with injured personnel who couldn’t make it to the dock? Would they have room for any tourists and shoppers at the base exchange?
Practice makes better. The pilots and Coast Guard conducted their last evacuation drills in 2018, practicing both fleeing to deep water and ferrying passengers across the harbor to Port Angeles, where they would have to scramble on foot about half a mile uphill. “It went perfectly,” says vonBrandenfels, “because we planned it.” Then the pandemic hit, and drills and planning lapsed.
The Coast Guard’s rotation policy further gums up planning and communication, according to the pilots. Personnel and officers are routinely promoted and transferred to new posts around the country every two to four years, two for commanding officers. The Port Angeles station has had nearly as many COs in its 88 years as the United States has had presidents in 224. Cuttie, who spearheaded tsunami readiness at the Port Angeles station, went on to contend with hurricanes as the Coast Guard’s assistant operation commander in New Orleans, following a stint in Jacksonville.
The Coast Guard sees this rotation as necessary to build interoperability — a model developed in the early 2000s and first tested against Hurricane Katrina, which drew resources from across the country. With interoperability, “commanders can request assets from all over the Coast Guard,” says Lt. Stephen T. Nolan, the public affairs officer for Coast Guard District 13, the regional command for four Northwest states. “That’s the beauty of the standardization model.” Under it, “you don’t get pockets of operational culture,” Petty Officer Clark explains. “So everyone can work with everyone.”
But frequent rotations make it hard to build institutional memory and sustain focus on a unique local challenge like tsunamis. “Size really exacerbates the transfer schedule” noted Cuttie. “If 40 percent of 1,500 people at a large base transfer, you still have lots of continuity. But the Coast Guard’s so small” — and Port Angeles is a small base within it — that transfers have much more effect. “It’s really hard for them to keep up with the plan,” sighs vonBrandenfels. “We’ll get the new commander involved, at least get a reasonable communication schedule” — and then he or she is gone.
Cmdr. Joan Snaith, the commanding officer at Port Angeles until last summer, didn’t have a chance to get briefed on tsunami impacts and evacuation prospects by Ian Miller or another expert; she arrived in June 2020, in the depths of the pandemic. So it may not be surprising that when I reached out to her she expressed a relatively sanguine view of the information and evacuation options that will be available in the 45-plus minutes between the earthquake’s shaking and the tsunami’s arrival. “The size of the wave will determine how we’ll need to respond,” Snaith told me in March 2022. “If we can get people off safely by land, we’ll do that.”
A land exit might be a reasonable response for the more common sort of waves generated by a distant earthquake or volcanic eruption, most likely in Alaska. (A Jan. 15, 2022, eruption in Tonga produced a tsunami warning but only minor waves along Washington’s coast.) Coasties and others on Ediz Hook would have several hours to prepare and evacuate.
Not so for the much larger tsunami generated by a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake, which would arrive an hour or less after the shaking starts. “Any official tsunami alert bulletins that come out before the wave arrives will likely not be based on the actual event because they won’t have time to compute actual wave arrival times or amplitudes,” Corina Allen, the state Geological Survey’s chief hazards geologist, explained via email.
And no one knows exactly how big tsunami waves will be until they land; multiple variables, including bathymetry, tides, and the location and character of the quake, influence wave height. Still, “for a local-source tsunami, the ground shaking will be the warning,” says Maximilian Dixon, who manages the state Emergency Management Division’s Earthquake Program. How long that shaking continues will give some indication of the quake’s severity, but it’s hardly a precise gauge of the tsunami to follow.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The cracks on the walls started to appear two days earlier. But despite the warning signs, Moushumi Begum still came to work on 24 April 2013. Moments later, she was buried under heavy rubble. “It all happened so quickly. I vividly remember every detail about that day, even though it was 10 years ago,” says Begum, who spent three hours trapped under Rana Plaza, the eight-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, that came crashing down.
That morning, garment workers and some factory managers had argued in the dusty courtyard outside the building, many reluctant to enter as they feared it was unsafe. Workers had been evacuated the day before because of those fears. Some say they were told they would not be paid that month’s wages if they did not go to work; others say that an internal gate was closed behind them.
In the 90 seconds it took to collapse, Rana Plaza became a symbol of global inequality. The final death toll was 1,134 people, with 2,500 injured. There were harrowing stories of survival, of people having their limbs amputated without anaesthetic to prise them from the rubble.
A new report by ActionAid Bangladesh has shed light on the devastating toll the disaster has taken on survivors a decade on, revealing that more than half (54.5%) of the survivors are still unemployed. The key reason is health conditions such as breathing difficulties, vision impairment and physical challenges, including not being able to stand or walk properly.
The report also assessed the safety of 200 current garment workers, with more than half feeling that initiatives taken by factory management were inadequate. Almost 20% of those interviewed reported that their factories lacked firefighting equipment, while 23% said emergency fire exits were not available.
Moushumi Begum, now 24, has been given a sewing machine by ActionAid Bangladesh to ease her path back to work. But she still does not dare enter a tall building.
Begum was just 14 years old. Now married with two small children, she has tried to move on, but her health continues to affect her daily activities. She suffers from acute respiratory distress syndrome, a life-threatening lung injury that makes it difficult for her to breathe. She takes regular pauses as she speaks.
Since the disaster, Begum has been too scared to step foot in another factory. “The memories of that day continue to haunt me,” she says. “I feel immense anxiety just standing near a tall building.”
Acute health conditions caused by the Rana Plaza disaster have left survivors dependent on medication.
“It has not been easy for anyone affected by Rana Plaza to return to a normal life,” says Begum, who receives counselling and financial support from ActionAid Bangladesh. The charity operates a workers’ cafe for garment workers through which Begum has acquired a free sewing machine to motivate her in returning to work. She remains reluctant: “I don’t think I’ll ever find the courage to work in one of those buildings again.”
‘How disposable we garment workers are’ … Husnara Akhtar lay for five hours under the rubble. After she was rescued, she learned her husband had died.
Husnara Akhtar, 30, remembers having breakfast with her husband, Abu Sufyan, before they went to work that day. Both worked in the Rana Plaza building, but in different factories.
As Akhtar went to her floor, she could tell something was wrong. “People were anxious; some of the workers were standing around, refusing to sit down. Someone said it wasn’t safe, but I saw the look on my manager’s face and quickly took my place on the denim line. The lights began to flicker and the floor beneath my feet shook. Within seconds, we were plunged into darkness.”
When Akhtar regained consciousness, she found herself wedged between two dead bodies. “I lay there for five whole hours unable to move,” she recalls. “It felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. There was so much dust and so many dead bodies.”
Akhtar was eventually found by rescue workers and taken to a nearby hospital, where she discovered the extent of her injuries: concussion, cracked ribs and fractured arms that would make it impossible for her to work again.
Sufyan’s body was found a week later, crushed under a concrete pillar. “My husband was just one of the hundreds of workers that died that day,” says Akhtar tearfully. “I remember looking at his crumpled body and thinking how disposable we garment workers are.”
Safiya Khatun searched for 15 days for her son. On day 16, she found out he was dead.
Safiya Khatun cries whenever she thinks about what happened that day. She was in the Savar district of Dhaka when she heard a deafening sound. “It felt like the world was ending,” recalls the 66-year-old, who watched as people began to panic. “Someone said a bomb had exploded. Another said a building had collapsed. Then I heard the words Rana Plaza and my heart sank.”
Khatun rushed to the scene, where her 18-year-old son, Lal Miah, worked as a seamster on the third floor. She spent the next 15 days desperately searching for him. She carried a passport-sized photo of him and asked rescue workers at the site if they had seen him. On the 16th day, one recognised him.
A mother’s last hope: the photo of 18-year-old garment worker Lal Miah.
When Khatun saw her son’s body, she could barely breathe. “How could something like this happen to my precious son? The collapse of Rana Plaza left thousands of mothers like me empty-handed. It was a tragedy that could have been avoided if only the owners had listened to the workers’ concerns.”
The family now live in poverty because her son was the earner. Khatun lives in a small hut made from bamboo and metal scraps. “I was given land as compensation for the loss of my dear boy but nothing can compensate us for what we have gone through.” Many of the victims’ families were given land, but most cannot afford to build homes on it.
In Savar today, garment workers walk past an enormous pair of granite fists grasping a hammer and sickle – a monument erected in memory of Rana Plaza victims. Around the monument, on the land where Rana Plaza once stood, only weeds and litter mark the spot.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Washington: US President Joe Biden has approved a disaster declaration for the southern state of Mississippi after deadly tornadoes.
Biden on early Sunday ordered federal aid to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by “severe storms, straight-line winds, and tornadoes” from Friday to Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Twenty-five Mississippians were killed overnight due to this severe weather,” the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said in a statement, warning that a large portion of the state has the potential to see severe storms on Sunday evening.
“Expect damaging wind gusts. Tornadoes cannot be ruled out,” the agency tweeted.
The officials also defended the furor of criticism of what some see as a delayed response by the administration, in particular DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg who did not speak publicly about the derailment until over a week after it happened, by saying an evacuation order was in place early on because of the danger of an explosion and local authorities were telling people to stay out of the area. Beyond that, they said that visits by high-ranking officials can create a distraction to crews working on the ground.
Officials on the call touched on the debate over whether electronically controlled pneumatic brakes could have averted the disaster. In 2015, after a National Academy of Sciences study could not find conclusively that they were better than other braking options, a rule that would have mandated their use on certain trains carrying very dangerous substances was withdrawn under the Trump administration, as required by statute.
“We got an avalanche of lawsuits opposing it immediately after we finalized it, which was in 2015,” one administration official said. “In 2016, Congress created a new bar for the cost-benefit analysis of the rule and directed us to essentially revisit it, with additional costs to consider.”
“So we found the safety benefit benefit was sufficient,” the official went on. “Then Congress weighed in. So that created an artificially higher bar for that rule and demonstrated a lack of support for that portion of the rule.”
On Thursday, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy took to Twitter to insist that “even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn’t have had ECP brakes” because it would have “applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS.”
“The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars,” she explained.
Several administration officials on the call said that ECP brakes have safety benefits and challenged Congress to act, since legislative action is quicker than regulatory action.
Officials also spoke about a pending rule that would require freight trains to have at least two crew members on board and to keep a sufficient maintenance and inspection workforce, saying it is “important it is not to curtail mechanical and brake safety inspections” as well as “making sure that the right people within the railroads are conducting those investigations.”
They also noted that the Biden administration has reinstituted audits of the railroads after they were suspended by the Trump administration.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The Ohio derailment is still under investigation by multiple agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB, an independent agency, has said preliminarily that an overheated wheel bearing on one of the cars is partially the culprit for the derailment.
However, derailments like these typically have multiple points of failure, and the NTSB’s investigation will likely take over a year to complete. Such NTSB probes typically examine any conceivable cause that could have led to a crash, including equipment malfunctions, poor system design, the lack of safety precautions, inadequate training, crew fatigue and myriad other factors.
“One hundred fifty cars is a really, really significant [number of cars],” said Sarah Feinberg, who dealt with multiple oil-train disasters and a fatal Amtrak derailment as leader of the Federal Railroad Administration under Barack Obama. “For years, the FRA and other safety regulators have raised concerns about trains of that size.”
Indeed, 150 cars is the FRA’s threshold for classifying a train as “very long,” even though no formal definition exists. In a 2019 study, the Government Accountability Office said 150 cars is more than twice the average length of freight trains operated by major railroads from 2008 through 2017. The GAO found that average freight train lengths had increased by 25 percent since 2008, and noted that some stretch to nearly three miles long.
The freight rail industry’s main trade group dismissed concerns about length. “Comparable length trains have been safely operating for decades and the industry’s safety record has seen dramatic improvements over those same decades,” said Jessica Kahanek, a spokesperson for the Association of American Railroads.
But the GAO authors note multiple concerns about train length, including that it can hamper crews’ ability to operate the trains, it can take longer for brakes to stop them, and safety risks can arise when firetrucks can’t get past multiple blocked rail crossings. The FRA wrote in a December report that it lacks the data “to determine safety consequences” of long trains, and in some cases doesn’t have enough authority to act on them.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is also studying the issue.
Others, especially labor unions, say the trains are too long for crews on opposite ends to communicate with each other, and that workers on board sometimes can’t hear track-based warning alarms up ahead. “Our radios aren’t built for the distances that these trains are built for,” Cassity said.
At the same time, one industry analyst noted, freight railroads such as Norfolk Southern, which operated the trains in the Ohio disaster, cannot refuse to carry hazardous materials such as vinyl chloride, one of the toxic, flammable chemicals released in East Palestine. That’s because railroads are considered “common carriers,” which are obligated to transport any legally permitted product.
“The government does not allow Norfolk Southern and the other railroads to carry hazardous materials,” said rail analyst Tony Hatch. “It compels them to carry them.”
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine pledged during a television interview Wednesday to make Norfolk Southern “pay for everything” needed to deal with the aftermath of the disaster, while Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said in a statement that questions remain about the train’s brakes and DOT’s “regulatory approach to our nation’s rail system.”
Feinberg also touched on the brake issue, saying she believes that a type of advanced brake could have lessened the damage from the Ohio disaster.
The DOT under Obama had issued a rule in 2015 requiring railroads to use those kinds of electronically controlled pneumatic brakes on certain especially dangerous trains, in response to a spate of fiery derailments of freight cars transporting crude oil. But the Trump administration repealed the braking mandate in 2017, after a National Academy of Sciences study failed to conclusively determine that ECP braking technology was superior to others.
The type and location of locomotives used to brake trains is especially important for long trains. The NTSB final report on a 2017 derailment in Pennsylvania faulted the use of hand brakes and the arrangement of freight cars in that accident involving a 178-car train, which also released hazardous chemicals and forced the evacuation of a nearby town.
“I and many others have said for many years that an ECP braking system is a much safer braking system to have on” any kind of “significant” train load, Feinberg said.
Norfolk Southern defended the integrity of the train in the Ohio derailment, including its braking configuration. Spokesperson Thomas Crosson told POLITICO that the weight distribution of the train that derailed in Ohio “was uniform throughout” and that a braking locomotive was placed mid-train to help it stop properly.
The Ohio derailment has also brought intensifying criticism of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, including from conservative media outlets that slammed him for not speaking publicly about the accident until 10 days after it happened. Progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) are also laying the incident in Buttigieg’s lap and calling on him to take “direct action.”
After days of calls for Buttigieg to engage more, the secretary weighed in Monday on Twitter to express concern about the people in and near East Palestine, whose “lives were upended through no fault of their own.” He also rattled off the multiple federal agencies involved in responding.
Railroad unions say the main problem is that corporate cost-cutting measures are eating into safety and raising the likelihood of disaster. This theme — corporate cost-cutting over safety — also underpinned part of why railroad unions threatened to strike last year.
Unions in particular target railroads’ implementation during the past decade of “precision scheduled railroading,” an operating model that focuses on minimizing workforce costs and maximizing equipment efficiency, including not leaving train cars idle.
Among the workforce cuts produced by this drive for efficiency were 40 percent of equipment maintenance workers, as GAO reported in December.
“We’ve heard reports from inspectors that the time they are allotted to inspect both sides of a rail car has decreased by 75 percent — from 2 minutes to as little as 30 seconds — thanks to the rail industry’s profits-over-people business model,” said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department.
Kahanek from AAR responded that not only are trains inspected before departing a rail yard, technology along the track constantly assess each train’s soundness and safety as they move throughout the system.
Precision scheduling and other cuts made in the name of efficiency have worsened freight rail’s problems, said former Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), who chaired the House railroad subcommittee. “That was a huge change that reverberated throughout the entire North American freight rail industry,” he said. “And I think there has not been enough of a response by Congress to those changes.”
Railroads have been losing workers since 2015 and 2016, when waves of layoffs started and those who remained were made to work longer and less predictable hours under challenging conditions. Union officials say they’ve seen many seasoned workers with decades of experience leave the industry in frustration — even forgoing lucrative railroad retirement benefits — and railroads are now scrambling to hire novices to take their place.
The EPA has told Norfolk Southern it’s potentially liable under the Superfund clean law. But the agency said Sunday that the air in East Palestine is now safe to breathe.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The powerful earthquakes that struck central Turkey and northwest Syria just over a week ago are the “worst natural disaster in the WHO European Region for a century,” said Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe.
“We are still learning about its magnitude. Its true cost is not known yet,” Kluge said during a press briefing today.
The WHO’s European Region includes 53 European and Central Asian countries, including Turkey.
More than 31,000 people are confirmed dead in Turkey, and nearly 5,000 lost their lives across the border in Syria, he said, adding that the figures are expected to rise further. He added that 26 million people across both countries are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The WHO launched a $43 million appeal to support the earthquake response, with likely more to come.
“I expect this to at least double over the coming days as we get a better assessment of the massive scale of this crisis and the needs,” Kluge said.
With water and sanitation facilities being hit, concerns are mounting over health issues, including thespread of infectious diseases. Health care facilities have also been gravely damaged.
“According to the Turkish authorities, an estimated 80,000 people are in hospital, placing a huge strain on the health system, itself badly damaged by the disaster,” Kluge said.
“We have initiated the largest deployment of Emergency Medical Teams in the WHO European Region in our 75-year history,”he added. Their goal is to support the damaged medical facilities, focusing on the high number of trauma patients and those with catastrophic injuries.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
As a shallow, inland earthquake of a huge magnitude flattened a vast belt straddling the border between Turkey and Syria killing thousands of people instantly, a number of Kashmiri students have joined relief and rescue teams. Khalid Bashir Gura talked to a few of them to report the state and status of a major tragedy
An aerial view of Hatay (Turkey) after the devastating twin earthquakes flattened the region. Image: Ibrahim Haskoloğlu
On February 5, Fazilah, a Kashmiri student went to Kahramanmaras, a Turkey city for a day trip. As it was snowing in Gaziantep, the message from the university group doubled the joy of tired Fazilah and her friends. “The educational institutions will be closed on Monday,” the varsity message read. Sensing an opportunity to rest and wake up late, joyful Fazilah planned to sleep late the next day without dinner.
On February 6, morning a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent 7.5-magnitude tremor hit the area seriously impacting contiguous territories in Turkey and Syria. The shallow earthquake said to be the major inland earthquake of the world in recent years killed more than 35000 people and reduced nearly 4000 buildings to rubble as the World Health Organisation (WHO) fears the toll can go unimaginably up. As rescuers scour to find survivors amidst the rubble of flattened buildings, Kashmiri students in Turkey said not many tourists and students were in the region where most people were sleeping.
Mourning Monday
“Tired, I went to bed but little did I know what was in store after a few hours. At around 4:15 am, the building started shaking so hard and everything rattled and fell that it woke us up and we were frightened,” Fazilah said. Luckily, the horrific shaking sounds woke us up, she said. “My roommate was in complete shock and started shouting, “ye kyahorhahai, ye rukkyunahirha, hum mar jayenge.” Having an experience of earthquakes back home, I hugged her to calm her down.” Instinctively, they hid under the bed but the relentless shaking scared them enough and they started running away, leaving everything in the room.
While running Fazilah’s roommate fell and broke her chin. “Coming out of the room looked like a long journey. At one point, I believed we will not make it and will get buried in the building,” she said. “The wall plaster was falling off and in the din of shrieks and cries, we somehow managed to move out.” It was too cold and snowing and they had no protection against it.
Shivering and watching the destruction around, Fazilah watch another major earthquake that widened the cracks in buildings. As it thawed, they quickly ran into the room and retrieved their shoes, jackets and cell phones.
“In frigid cold air students, and families huddled and left for a safer place called Olipmichavuz (Olympic pool). Panicked people had to leave the apartments and take refuge at safer locations. Later, authorities were providing food and necessary items but it wasn’t enough for all the people there,” she said, insisting though the place was warm, it lacked space and was jam-packed.
As the news broke back home, there was a barrage of distressed calls and messages.
Much later, as they walked to their dormitory, they felt deserted streets, silent roads and quiet apartments as if life ceased to exist. Every time the people felt safe in a building, the fierce aftershocks ensured they ran out.
“I left the devastated city and now I am in Ankara, with Kashmiri students studying here,” Fazilah said, insisting the memories of miraculous survival and aftershocks have triggered trauma and she has a huge sleep deficit.
Volunteers and Response
Unlike, Fazilah, Zeenish, a Kashmiri student in Film and TV at Bahcesehir University was deep in sleep when the earthquake struck. She lives in Istanbul, more than 1000 km away from the epicentre. She did not feel tremors either. After the details of the devastation emerged, she joined the three Kashmiri students to volunteer for work.
Teams from around the world dispatched rescue workers, equipment and aid to deal with the disaster. So far 97 countries have offered assistance as the earthquake affected more than 13 million people across 10 Turkish provinces. Three different teams from India are part of the rescue efforts in Turkey. These include a 101-member NDRF team and an army medical corps detachment. This is in addition to a huge relief that has flown to Syria and Turkey. Turkey has arranged thousands of translators to bridge the communication gap between the rescue teams and the local people.
An aerial view of the devastation by the February 2023 earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.
“We started volunteering on the second day after the earthquake after our university pages posted advertisements to volunteer or contribute relief material for the victims,” said Zeenish. Outside the campus, various e-commerce sites are offering relief delivery free.
According to her, they saw the advertisement and went with whatever relief material we could offer and help in packing and dispatching. “We collect the relief material, pack it in boxes and then load them in trucks to deliver it to the affected site. We know about the authentic sites here and therefore choose to contribute carefully,” she said.
The tragedy has united the Turkish people. “Food is being cooked by volunteers overnight even in Istanbul, which is more than a thousand km from that place, and then taken to the Gaziantep and nearby areas. People are donating blood, food, clothes, blankets, and essential supplies. Many of the rich property owners provided living facilities for the people who are homeless after the quake.”
Relief and Rescue
To address connectivity, social media is being used by companies and relief workers in fundraising, relief gathering and relief delivery.
There are two types of responses right now according to Wahid Bashir, a Kashmiri scholar in Istanbul. Firstly, according to him, the government institutions like AFAD, a disaster management system in the home ministry, are leading all the rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities. There are other government institutions and organisations as well.
“There are non-governmental or semi-governmental groups that are into rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities. But all these institutions are doing activities in the areas they have a speciality in. Some are doing only rescue, some only relief and some may start rehabilitating the people as well,” he said. He said Turks as a nation are so much a responsible society that they are responding to this disaster collectively. “They try to do things in collaboration with government agencies in a controlled manner and not in haphazard ways.”
Kamran Ashraf Bhat, another Kashmiri, a Media and Cinema researcher at Bahcesehir University, has volunteered for rescue and relief operations. A resident of Kupwara, he had received panic calls and messages when he was sleeping. Bhat was a class seven student when on October 8, 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 rattled Kashmir. However, at home, his distressed parents, and friends heaved a sigh of relief when he said: ‘hello’ on phone.
“According to him, there are not many Kashmiris in the devastated area as there are no major educational institutions and only two Kashmiris were located and they are safe. The area is far off from the capital. However, the gloom is all over Turkey,” Bhat said, insisting there are systems in vogue that encourage people to contribute their bit without physical involvement. “Each individual, the organisation has been given a specific area to tackle as the priority is to save lives and reduce the death toll by pulling people out of the rubble. Many NGOs have also chipped in,” he said.
Modern Aids
Turkish engineers have developed technologies to aid earthquake victims. Apps like Debris Listening App, serve to hear the voices of those under the debris without the need for the internet. The system can record frequencies between 350 – 5000 Hz. There are other Apps like Collective Platform for Earthquake Victims, Disaster Information, Map for Safe Zones, Earthquake Help, Earthquake Call (A Twitter stream application for people under the debris.), Be My Guest (People not in the earthquake zone can give victims the run of their homes.).
There are set psychological intervention formats too. Off late, the Turkish government is being criticised for its failure in curbing disinformation and ensuring smooth rescue and relief operations.
Other than the AFAD, Yaqeen Sikander, a Kashmiri psychotherapist and clinical psychologist based in Istanbul said there are many organizations on the ground like IHH and India operation Dost.
The 1999 Marmara earthquake, however, marked a turning point in the area of disaster management and coordination. This devastating disaster clearly demonstrated the need to reform disaster management and compelled the country to establish a single government institution to single-handedly coordinate and exercise legal authority in cases of disaster and emergencies.
Off late, a clinical psychologist is coordinating a project in which there will be specific instructions for adults, children, psychologists and first responders who are on the ground. “It includes tips to reduce anxiety, and phone numbers one can call. It will be a one-pager psychological first aid.”
Besides providing safety, food and shelter we have to ensure psychosocial education. Besides, there will be a psychological assessment to assess trauma and this involves listening to them mostly,” Sikander, who is a PhD candidate at IbnHaldun University, said. He is doing this project for his University as the University’s first group has left for fieldwork.
“There are children who need explanation and people whose family members died. How do you send this message to them? Generally, a psychologist is sent to deliver this news, while following the protocol,” he said.
Ankara: Natural disasters usually work to unite people to put aside political differences, and it’s been the case for the deadly earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria.
The catastrophe may also have an impact on international relations. Countries at odds with Turkey and Syria have rallied in solidarity with the two quake-hit countries, sending batches of aid and rescue teams, Xinhua news agency reported.
However, it’s unclear whether this dynamic will continue when the disaster has passed or whether new understandings and bridges will be established, experts said.
Over 9,800 rescue personnel from 70 countries have rushed to southeastern Turkey after it was jolted on February 6 by two powerful earthquakes that have killed 31,643 and wounded over 80,000, according to the latest official toll announced on Monday.
This is the worst natural disaster that Turkiye has witnessed. An earthquake in eastern Turkey in 1939 had killed 30,000 people.
Some countries stick out on the long list more than others, such as Greece, Armenia and Cyprus, despite having had difficult or tense relations with Ankara over decades.
However, all of these old rivals have set aside their animosity and given helping hands at a time of disaster.
“Natural disasters are indeed brief moments of conciliation in bilateral disputes. In the case of Turkey and Greece they are both earthquake-prone countries and have come to the aid of one another many times, allowing for reconciliation,” Batu Coskun, an independent political risk analyst, told Xinhua.
“Usually when the crisis subsides, bilateral tensions reassert themselves, though with less severity,” he pointed out.
Earthquakes that struck both Turkey and Greece in 1999 gave rise to “earthquake diplomacy” and improved previously tense ties between the two nations. Before tensions reemerged, the post-quake mood persisted for a few years.
Ankara and Athens have decades-old feuds and have repeatedly come to the brink of war. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias arrived on Sunday for a visit to Turkey’s disaster-struck Adana province, where he was warmly greeted by his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu who praised Greek relief efforts.
“We do not need to wait for natural disasters to improve our relations,” Dendias was quoted as saying by the local press.
Turkey has not had diplomatic or commercial ties with Armenia since the 1990s. The two countries also reconnected for the first time in decades in the wake of the earthquakes.
A border gate between the two countries has been opened for the first time in more than three decades to allow aid for victims of the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey, according to the semi-official Anadolu Agency.
“The land border with Armenia being opened is a significant milestone. Likely, this event will become a major motivator for both countries to normalize relations and exchange ambassadors,” Coskun said.
He added that in the post-crisis period when foreign policy again becomes a priority for the government after disaster relief, “we will see the impact of this.”
Israel has also sent aid to Turkey. The two countries have improved their relations recently after over a decade of discord.
Tulin Daloglu, a journalist and foreign policy analyst, said that Turkey should take lessons from this tragedy and try to move to a softer line in foreign policy towards some countries it has problems with.
She specifically mentioned Sweden, whose NATO membership bid has met with objections from Ankara over security issues.
“Yet, Sweden immediately rushed to assist Turkey in the aftermath of the disaster,” Daloglu said, adding that such an event can change the way a country is seen by the public opinion of the host country.
Ankara: The devastating earthquakes that shook southern Turkey and northern Syria was the “worst event” to hit the region in a century, a senior official from the United Nations said.
“What happened here on Monday, the epicentre of the earthquake, was the worst event in 100 years in this region,” Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told reporters in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.
More than 100 countries have sent emergency response teams to Turkey, but “we’re going to need more than that,” Griffiths said.
The UN would launch the appeal to raise money for agencies to come and help the people who’ve been affected, he added.
“We have a clear plan tomorrow (or) the day after to give an appeal for a three-month operation to help the people of Turkey with humanitarian assistance, and we will do some similar one for the people of Syria,” he said.
As they are coming to the end of the rescue phase, the UN official expressed concern for the second phase of the disaster, Xinhua news agency reported.
“The second phase of a natural disaster of this size is often a medical one, where we have huge worries here and in Syria, of the health problems which have been going on treated,” he noted.
Turkey’s response to the disaster was “extraordinary,” Griffiths added.
The death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquakes climbed to 22,327 in Turkey, while another 80,278 injuries were reported in the country, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Saturday evening.
Search and rescue efforts in ten quake-hit 10 provinces of Turkey have now begun to turn to debris removal on the sixth day of the disaster. Rescue teams from across Turkey and around the world were still trying to find survivors in the rubble of toppled buildings and pulled them out against all odds. However, while the number of casualties is soaring, the number of injured pulled out of the rubble was so few on Saturday.
In a statement, the Turkish Medical Association warned about infectious diseases that may occur after the earthquake. Damage to infrastructure such as electricity, water and sewerage increases the risk of water and food-borne diseases, the statement said.
Risks increase for acute respiratory infections such as influenza and coronavirus, along with the possibility of contact-transmitted diseases such as scabies, lice, fungi and diarrhoeal diseases, it added.
At least 160,000 people, including foreign teams, were on the field for search and rescue efforts, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. All the state dormitories of universities will be reserved for earthquake victims, and university students will have distance learning until the summer, he noted.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu slammed Germany and Austria because their teams have suspended their efforts due to security threats, and criticized them for “slandering” Turkey.
“Austria’s search and rescue team left the job with the claim of battering … From the first day (of the quake), 416 incidents took place. In the six days before the earthquake, 586 events occurred,” in the region, the Turkish Minister said.
“As many as 230 people have been detained so far, there are more than 20 arrests. Our friends take the security of the logistics warehouses, the security of the debris fields, the security of the tent sites,” he added.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
