We must retrofit and audit the existing infrastructure to ensure that they are able to withstand seismic forces, and we must change our construction practices to suit the seismicity of our zone, writes Uzma Khan
An undated photograph showing Christain missionaries treating people in an open dispensary in Baramulla. The people were injured in an earthquake.
As someone who understands the amount of destruction an earthquake can cause in an area where building codes are not followed, it is my responsibility to draw attention to the urgent need for earthquake-resistant construction across Jammu and Kashmir.
We were recently hit by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake on March 21, 2023, just two months after we heard about the devastating earthquake in Turkey. The earthquake hit 40 km SSE of Jurm, Afghanistan, at a depth of 187 kilometres. The Turkey earthquake has shown us the devastating consequences of not being prepared, and we cannot afford to be complacent any longer.
We live in a high seismic zone, with a fault plate running through our region, making us particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. Yet, we continue to build homes and public buildings that are ill-prepared to withstand the forces of nature. Our current construction practices, such as using masonry walls, flat slabs, and inadequate reinforcement, using improper materials, are not enough to withstand an earthquake.
It is concerning to see how we have become accustomed to spending our life savings on building houses that are not even earthquake-resistant. We focus on false ceilings and architectural designs while forgetting the most basic element: strength. Houses in Kashmir don’t have enough reinforcement and ductility for dealing with seismic forces.
A woman carrying her chid looks at the home they once owned in Uri. The home was destroyed on October 2005 earthquake that almost flattened a vast belt straddling the Line of Control.
To address this issue, we must prioritize the creation of resilient public buildings that can be used for community gatherings and events, so that we do not have to rely solely on our homes for weddings and funerals. Rather than focusing on the sizes of our halls and houses, we must prioritize making the structure stronger and more earthquake-resistant. Critical infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and government buildings, must also be made more resilient to withstand seismic forces.
Despite the clear evidence from the Turkey earthquake that hospitals built using base isolation techniques can withstand seismic forces and play a crucial role in saving lives, the situation in Kashmir is concerning. With just a magnitude 6 earthquake, there were already reports of hospitals in Srinagar developing cracks due to the shocks. This raises serious questions about the strength and resilience of our healthcare infrastructure in the face of a potentially catastrophic event, such as the Great Himalayan earthquake predicted by geologists. If our hospitals cannot withstand the forces of nature, how can we rely on them to provide life-saving aid when it is needed most? It is imperative that we prioritize the seismic resilience of critical infrastructure, including hospitals, to ensure that we are prepared for any seismic event. Failure to do so would be a grave disservice to our communities and put countless lives at risk.
An aerial view of the Mleech Mar, the first locality of Muslims in Srinagar.
We must retrofit and audit the existing infrastructure to ensure that they are able to withstand seismic forces, and we must change our construction practices to suit the seismicity of our zone.
Just like the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, a house made of straw and twigs will not suffice if we have an earthquake in our midst. We need to prioritize strength and resilience in our homes and public buildings.
In addition to improving our construction practices, it’s important that we also prepare ourselves and our families for the possibility of earthquakes. Creating a family emergency plan can be an important step in preparing for natural disasters like earthquakes. One way to start is by making sure that everyone in your household is aware of the layout of your home and can identify any potential weak spots. This could include things like heavy objects that could fall during an earthquake or areas of the house that may be structurally unsound.
It’s also a good idea to identify a safe gathering spot for everyone in your household in case of an earthquake. This spot should be away from any potential hazards, like windows or tall furniture, and ideally in an open area like a park or field.
September 2014: An aerial view of an inundated Srinagar. KL Image: Special Arrangement
Another important part of a family emergency plan is knowing how to turn off utilities like gas, electricity, and water. This can help prevent further damage to your home in the event of an earthquake.
The recent earthquake not only revealed the vulnerability of our buildings but also the lack of awareness among people regarding earthquake safety measures. People were seen taking shelter under walls, standing near electric poles, and running inside their homes during the tremors. This demonstrates a clear need for educating the public about the dos and don’ts during an earthquake. We must know where to stand and what to avoid in such situations. It is crucial to wait outside in case of aftershocks to avoid further danger. It’s time we prioritize earthquake preparedness and equip ourselves with the knowledge to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
Uzma Khan
It’s important to remember that during an earthquake, panic can lead people to make dangerous decisions, so being prepared beforehand can help avoid that.
By taking these steps, we can ensure that we are better prepared for seismic events and protect ourselves and our loved ones.
Right now the real major challenge is to take this matter seriously and work towards creating a safer, more resilient Kashmir. Together, society can ensure that it is better prepared for seismic events and protect itself. Remember, earthquakes don’t kill, buildings do. Let us prioritize strength and resilience in our homes and public buildings and critical infrastructure.
Creating a safer, more resilient Kashmir requires action from all of us.
(The author holds a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering. Opinions are personal.)
University of Washington professor of seismology and geohazards Harold Tobin who also heads the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, explains the differences between predicting and forecasting earthquakes
An aerial view of the devastation by the February 2023 earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.
In short, no. Science has not yet found a way to make actionable earthquake predictions. A useful prediction would specify a time, a place and a magnitude – and all of these would need to be fairly specific, with enough advance notice to be worthwhile.
For example, if I predict that California will have an earthquake in 2023, that would certainly come true, but it’s not useful because California has many small earthquakes every day. Or imagine I predict a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake will strike in the Pacific Northwest. That is almost certainly true but doesn’t specify when, so it’s not helpful new information.
Earthquakes happen because the slow and steady motions of tectonic plates cause stresses to build up along faults in the Earth’s crust. Faults are not really lines, but planes extending down miles into the ground. Friction due to the enormous pressure from the weight of all the overlying rock holds these cracks together.
An earthquake starts in some small spot on the fault where the stress overcomes the friction. The two sides slip past each other, with the rupture spreading out at a mile or two per second. The grinding of the two sides against each other on the fault plane sends out waves of motion of the rock in every direction. Like the ripples in a pond after you drop in a stone, it’s those waves that make the ground shake and cause damage.
Most earthquakes strike without warning because the faults are stuck – locked up and stationary despite the strain of the moving plates around them, and therefore silent until that rupture begins. Seismologists have not yet found any reliable signal to measure before that initial break.
What about the likelihood of a quake in one area?
On the other hand, earthquake science today has come a long way in what I’ll call forecasting as opposed to prediction.
Seismologists can measure the movement of the plates with millimetre-scale precision using GPS technology and other means, and detect the places where stress is building up. Scientists know about the recorded history of past earthquakes and can even infer farther back in time using the methods of paleo-seismology: the geologically preserved evidence of past quakes.
Putting all this information together allows us to recognize areas where conditions are ripe for a fault to break. These forecasts are expressed as the likelihood of an earthquake of a given size or greater in a region over a period of decades into the future. For example, the US Geological Survey estimates the odds of a magnitude 6.7 or greater quake in the San Francisco Bay Area over the next 30 years is 72 per cent.
Are there any hints a quake could be coming?
A meme that somebody set on social media after the September 22, 2020 evening tremors and it moved faster than the earthquake.
Only about 1 in 20 damaging earthquakes have foreshocks – smaller quakes that precede a larger one in the same place. By definition, they aren’t foreshocks, though, until a bigger one follows. The inability to recognize whether an earthquake in isolation is a foreshock is a big part of why useful prediction still eludes us.
However, in the past decade or so, there have been a number of massive earthquakes of magnitude 8 or more, including the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan and a 2014 magnitude 8.1 in Chile. Interestingly, a larger fraction of those very biggest earthquakes seem to have exhibited some precursory events, either in the form of a series of foreshocks detected by seismometers or sped-up movements of the nearby Earth’s crust detected by GPS stations, called “slow slip events” by earthquake scientists.
These observations suggest that perhaps there really are precursory signals for at least some huge quakes. Maybe the sheer size of the ensuing quake made otherwise imperceptible changes in the region of the fault prior to the main event more detectable. We don’t know, because so few of these greater-than-magnitude-8 earthquakes happen. Scientists don’t have a lot of examples to go on that would let us test hypotheses with statistical methods.
In fact, while earthquake scientists all agree that we can’t predict quakes today, there are now essentially two camps: In one view, earthquakes are the result of complex cascades of tiny effects – a sensitive chain reaction of sorts that starts with the proverbial butterfly wing flapping deep within a fault – so they’re inherently unpredictable and will always remain so. On the other hand, some geophysicists believe we may one day unlock the key to prediction if we can just find the right signals to measure and gain enough experience.
How do early warning systems work?
One real breakthrough today is that scientists have developed earthquake early warning systems like the USGS ShakeAlert now operating in California, Oregon and Washington State. These systems can send out an alert to residents’ mobile devices and to operators of critical machinery, including utilities, hospitals, trains and so on, providing warning of anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute before shaking begins.
This sounds like an earthquake prediction, but it is not. Earthquake early-warning relies on networks of seismometers that detect the very beginning of an earthquake on a fault and automatically calculate its location and magnitude before the damaging waves have spread very far. The sensing, calculating and data transfer all happen near the speed of light, while the seismic waves move more slowly. That time difference is what allows early warning.
For example, if an earthquake begins off the coast of Washington state beneath the ocean, coastal stations can detect it, and cities like Portland and Seattle could get tens of seconds of warning time. People may well get enough time to take a life safety action like “Drop, Cover and Hold On” – as long as they are sufficiently far away from the fault itself.
What complications would predicting bring?
While earthquake prediction has often been referred to as the “holy grail” of seismology, it actually would present some real dilemmas if ever developed.
First of all, earthquakes are so infrequent that any early methods will inevitably be of uncertain accuracy. In the face of that uncertainty, who will make the call to take a major action, such as evacuating an entire city or region? How long should people stay away if a quake doesn’t materialize? How many times before it’s a boy-who-cried-wolf situation and the public stops heeding the orders? How do officials balance the known risks from the chaos of mass evacuation against the risk from the shaking itself? The idea that prediction technology will emerge fully formed and reliable is a mirage.
It is often said in the field of seismology that earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do. Scientists are already good enough today at forecasting earthquake hazards that the best course of action is to redouble efforts to construct or retrofit buildings, bridges and other infrastructure so they’re safe and resilient in the event of ground shaking in any area known to be at risk from large future quakes. These precautions will pay off in lives and property saved far more than a hoped-for means of earthquake prediction, at least for the foreseeable future.
(The author is Professor of Seismology and Geohazards, University of Washington. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.)
SRINAGAR: A woman suffered ‘minor injuries’ after a house she was dwelling in collapsed allegedly after last night’s earthquake in this district, reports and officials said on Wednesday.
The locals claimed that the house at Balnoi village of Mankote Mendhar area in the district collapsed after last night’s 6.6 magnitude tremor shook it, leading to minor injuries to a woman identified as Asiya Parveen, wife of Mohammad Bhasharat .
A police official said that while the woman suffered minor injuries, claims about the house getting damaged due to the earthquake were being verified. (GNS)
SRINAGAR: The powerful tremors that shook Kashmir valley at around 10:17 pm on Tuesday and made the frightened people flee their homes, has killed at least nine people in Pakistan and four in Afghanistan, as per media reports.
In Afghanistan, at least four people were killed and 70 others injured in affected areas across the country, according to Sharafat Zaman Amar, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.
But the number of fatalities may climb as search and rescue teams reach more affected villages, said Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Disaster Management. Som
At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight.
The United States Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.5 quake was centred in the Hindu Kush mountains, near the Jurm village in northeastern Afghanistan, but the depth of 187 kilometres mitigated extensive damage.
It was felt by some 285 million people in Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.
Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate. A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed more than 1,000 people last year. In 2005, at least 73,000 people were killed by a 7.6 magnitude quake that struck northern Pakistan.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted because geologists are still limited to studying the Earth’s surface and haven’t been able to study the planet’s crust, a hundred km below where the earthquakes originate.
An aerial view of the devastation by the February 2023 earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.
It is said that when a major earthquake happens anywhere, fear strikes everywhere. There is no place on earth that is not quake-prone. In some places, it might be more, and in some, less.
India is the third-largest earthquake-prone country globally, after Japan and Nepal. Within India, the Himalayas are the most quake-prone zone. According to the National Centre for Seismology, nearly 59% of India’s landmass is prone to earthquakes at varying intensities. As many as 11 cities and towns in about eight states and Union Territories fall within Zone-5, the highest one, and the capital city Delhi in itself is categorized in Zone-4.
The vulnerable states/UTs include Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The capital Delhi is located near three active seismic fault lines – Sohna, Mathura, and Delhi-Moradabad. Gurugram is the riskiest area in Delhi-NCR, being situated around seven fault lines. If these get activated, a high-intensity quake that could wreak havoc is unavoidable. The capital, in particular, would experience changes in the tectonic plates as it is close to the Himalayas. The central Himalayan region is among the most seismically active zones globally.
For over 700 years, the region has been under tectonic stress, which could potentially be released in the coming years, as indicated by a study.
Seismologists believe that the tremors are a manifestation of the convergence between the Indo-Australian and Asian tectonic plates that built the Himalayan mountains in the last 50 million years. Any mega earthquake will have a magnitude upwards of 8 on the Richter scale and can occur anywhere between Dehradun to Kathmandu, and its impact can be felt in the entire Gangetic plains and massive Indian cities like Delhi NCR, Shimla, Patna.
Since tectonic tension builds up over a long time before it can be released, it is believed that strong earthquakes follow a ‘seismic cycle.’ For instance, after a region has faced an earthquake of magnitude 7 or higher, it takes decades for another earthquake of a similar size to strike the same location. On the other hand, if a region hasn’t seen a sizable earthquake in a while, the likelihood of one occurring is very high.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted because geologists are still limited to studying the Earth’s surface and haven’t been able to study the planet’s crust, a hundred km below where the earthquakes originate. However, seismologists can make calculated guesses based on probability and larger geological patterns. It is by studying such patterns in the Himalayan Mountain ranges that seismologists Roger Bilham and K Khatri predicted the Great Himalayan Earthquake.
The two scientists were able to identify a seismic gap – the region where tectonic tension builds up because no earthquakes have occurred – in the central Himalayan region. According to the researchers, the Indian tectonic plate is moving along a significant fault beneath the Himalayas at a rate of around 1.8 centimetres per year. The absence of a massive earthquake in the central Himalayas in recorded history provides strong evidence that a significant amount of tectonic tension has built up in this region and is ready to be released.
According to seismologists, the Himalayas have not seen an earthquake over the magnitude of eight in over five hundred years. This has led to the accumulation of great amounts of strain between the Eurasian plate and the Indian plate. The last major earthquake in the Himalayan belt was the 2015 Nepal earthquake (7.3 M) which killed over 8,900 people preceded by the 2005 earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir (7.6 M) which took 87,000 lives. However, these weren’t enough to release the seismic stress.
According to Bilham and many other seismologists, the Great Himalayan Earthquake is inevitable. However, the exact date, as well as the epicentre of this earthquake, is still unknown. So, this earthquake can strike us tomorrow, the next year, or after a hundred years, no one can predict for sure. Moreover, while the central Himalayan region will be the most probable centre of the earthquake, the specific location is still unknown, and seismologists can only take an educated guess.
Dr N Purnachandra Rao, the chief scientist of seismology at the National Geophysical Research Institute, has warned that an earthquake similar in magnitude to Turkey quakes or even more is “imminent” in Uttarakhand and can happen “any time.” Tremendous stress continues to build under the Uttarakhand region, and it will inevitably be released as a massive earthquake in the area anytime.
“We are monitoring the situation in real-time. We have GPS networks in the area. GPS points are moving, indicating changes happening beneath the surface,” he said. There are around 80 seismic stations in the Himalayan region focused on Uttarakhand already smarting under sinking earth at several places. There is a good chance it will exceed a magnitude of 8 when it happens. These earthquakes are fairly periodic, and that’s how scientists currently predict when the next one could strike. Uttarakhand faces the brunt of this quite often. However, the state has not endured a “great earthquake” (magnitude 8 and higher) for over 100 years.
Incidentally, birds of all hues made loud noises and flew abnormally in flocks on the night before the big quake, indicating something unusual was going to happen. Unlike birds, humans have not developed such premonition.
(This write-up first appeared in Himalayan News Chronicle Vol-3, Issue-2 – February 1, 2023 – February 28, 2023. Views are personal.)
SRINAGAR: Deputy commissioner Kupwara on Tuesday termed the reports of deaths in the district following strong earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir as fake and baseless.
Dattatray said the reports doing rounds on social media about 3 deaths in Kupwara due to earthquake are fake.
He said no such incident has happened anywhere in the district, while damage to any property was being ascertained.
Earlier, an earthquake of 6.6 magnitude shook Jammu and Kashmir and several parts of north India.
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.
SRINAGAR: The death toll in the Turkey-Syria earthquake has crossed 25000 people as rescuers from more than 90 countries, including India, are desperately looking for survivors in the debris. Since February 6, when the twin earthquakes flattened a vast belt straddling the border, the region has witnessed more than 650 aftershocks, reports in international media quoting AFD said.
“This is the worst earthquake and perhaps the world’s largest inland disaster,” a Kashmiri student in Turkey said. “Seismologists say that the width of the fault line is between 150 km to 200 km, which means the destruction caused by the earthquake would be huge because the fault line is quite wide. They say it was a shallow earthquake as its epicentre was merely 18 km deep from the crust of the earth.”
In Turkey, the death toll has crossed 22327 people as 80,104 survived injured. In Syria, the total number of deaths stands at 3,553, including 2,166 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defence group. There have been 1,387 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media. The total number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories stands at 5,273, with 2,326 in government-controlled areas and 2,950 in rebel-held areas.
Forecasting by rescue and relief workers suggest millions stand rendered homeless including 53 lakh in Syria alone.
Most of the people were asleep when the disaster hit the region. AFAD, Turkey’s disaster management authority, is being helped by 7800 rescue workers from more than 90 countries. Two major teams from India are part of the rescue and relief operations.
“The first three days are critical for evacuation and saving lives during a disaster. But miracles do happen, even today people are being rescued alive,” the student, referring to the reports appearing in the Turkish media said.
The student said that the major problem was managing translators who could help international teams to interact with the host population. Most of the international teams speak English but Turks prefer Turkish over every other language.
“Apart from AFAD translators, international students and international workers have joined the rescue and relief work and they are helping the international rescuers to communicate with the people.”
India launched a search and rescue operation to aid Syria and Turkey named as Operation Dost. “Our teams are working day and night as a part of ‘operation dost’. They will keep giving their best to ensure maximum lives and property are saved. In this critical time, India stands firmly with the people of Turkiye” tweeted prime minister Narendra Modi.
There was a lot of reportage about Turkey getting preference in rescue and relief, unlike the war-torn Syrian belts. This led to certain changes in the last few days.
The US has temporarily eased its sanctions on Syria in an effort to speed up aid deliveries to the country’s north-west, where almost no humanitarian assistance has arrived despite the deaths of thousands in this week’s earthquake. “I don’t think that this license will suddenly open the floodgates and allow for unhindered humanitarian access and delivery in Syria,” said Delaney Simon, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group’s US programme, was quoted as saying by the Guardian. “There are just too many other access issues. But I hope that the license will ease the concerns of financial providers, the private sector, and other actors, to show them that sanctions won’t be a risk for them to engage in Syria.” The United States will provide $85 million in humanitarian aid to Turkey and Syria.
Rescue teams from Russia have also been sent to both Syria and Turkey.
SRINAGAR: More than 2600 people were reported dead in a devastating earthquake that flattened most of Turkey’s Gaziantep area bordering Syria. The devastation is visible across Turkey’s 10 provinces and a vast belt in war-torn Syria.
Tensions in Kashmir families whose wards are studying in Turkey has mounted even though the Government of India is making efforts to reach the Indian students if any, in the disaster-hit areas. India said it was sending medical squads, search and rescue teams and relief material to assist Turkey’s response. Officials in India said they prepared 100 rescue workers with specially trained dogs to send to Turkey in the wake of the earthquake.
Malatya’da yeni yapılan bir bina, Kahramanmaraş depremi sonrası bugün yerle bir oldu. pic.twitter.com/dcNzSDi5yO
The destruction was the outcome of two massive earthquakes – the first one having a magnitude of 7.8, and hours later another one with 7.5 magnitudes. The winter is supposed to impact rescue operations as the toll is likely to go up many times more. It was raining when a major tremor hit the area.
The wee-hour earthquake led to the pancake collapse of a vast number of housing blocks, trapping people under the rubble. The rescue was on when the second one hit the same belt thus adding to the crisis. Some of the buildings that survived the first or both major jolts later collapsed like pack of cards. Some of these destructions were captured by people on their cell phones.
JUST IN: 🇹🇷 Thousands estimated to be dead following 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey. pic.twitter.com/Z4VHxtPvaF
Turkey and parts of Syria fall in a high seismic zone. Given the magnitude of the earthquake, it is been seen as the second only to December 1939 earthquake that killed 39000 people.
“I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I have lived,” BBC quoted Gaziantep resident Erdem saying. “We were shaken at least three times very strongly, like a baby in a crib.”
In certain areas the earthquake damaged the gas pipeline triggering fires. Turkey’s state-owned crude oil and natural gas corporation, BOTAS, the flow of natural gas to Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces, as well as nine nearby counties, was stopped as a result of damage to the Kahramanmaras-Gaziantep transmission line.
2,200 years old Gazintap Castle destroyed by the earthquake in Turkey.
“I barely got myself and my family out of the building. We were just coming out of the wreckage when we saw a person reach out through a small gap,” Veysel Şervan told BBC. “The building collapsed on our friend who tried to save them. They have no chance of escape, it collapsed on them completely. We are in a very difficult situation.”
The earthquake reduced Gaziantep castle and the Shirvan Mosque to rubble. The castle was over 2000 years old and belonged to the Roman period. Built by the Romans during the second and third centuries, the castle was strengthened and expanded by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the sixth century. Later the Ayyubids in the twelfth and thirteen centuries improved it. It was a museum.
Pray for #Turkey A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey Syria,(State of Catastrophe) early on Monday, It’s a major earthquake in the history of centre thousands of building collapse,912 people died & 5373 above people injured😭💔 #TurkeyEarthquake#turkeyearthquake2023pic.twitter.com/QEqjFVgFok
Turkish official news gatherer, Anadolu Agency reported the earthquake — felt as far away as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Egypt — occurred in Kahramanmaras province, north of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border. It devastated the southern Turkey and northern and central Syria. Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Adana, Adiyaman, Malatya, Osmaniye, Hatay, and Kilis provinces are heavily affected by the quake.
700+ people have died as a deadly earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 jolted 🇹🇷 Turkey, 🇸🇾 Syria, and 🇱🇧 Lebanon. إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون#TurkeyEarthquakepic.twitter.com/5d3M5u2mQU
Given the fact that the winters and the collapse of public communication systems have been seriously impacted, the survivors have uploaded hundreds of photographs and visuals explaining the devastation. A number of global media houses have used these motion photographs to detail the tragedy for larger audiences.
Latest reports suggest that a tsunami has hit the Turkish shores and it is adding to the costs.
