Seismologists assessed the rumors about the threat of a tsunami in Antalya

The province of Antalya received a warning from Turkish scientists about the threat of an earthquake followed by a tsunami – having learned about this from local residents, foreign guests of Turkish resorts were indignant, why weren’t they warned too ?! Many tourists are starting to leave hotels whose seismic resistance is doubtful. We found out how real the threat is and what tourists should know.

– My husband and daughter and I came here for only 10 days, – says Natalya, a Muscovite, who is now vacationing with her family in Alanya, – and my girlfriend and her husband live here permanently, they have an apartment in a residential complex where most of the neighbors are Turks. And these neighbors suddenly began to gather and leave for other regions.

A friend noticed and asked a question. And in response, she was dumbfounded by the fact that there was a new earthquake on the coast, they say, even Turkish newspapers write about this. And the fact that hotels do not talk about this is so that there is no panic.

The survey shows that the majority of our tourists, who are now on the Turkish Riviera, really have not heard of anything like this. It is not difficult to find the warnings of scientists on the Web, but they are in Turkish.

“There are indeed reasons for concern,” said Akdeniz University professor in Antalya. – This is what the researchers of our Center for Mediterranean Civilizations say, in particular the historian Chagry Yilmaz and the head of the department of geography Mustafa Erturk. They probably gave interviews to the press. Although, of course, headlines like “Antalya will disappear from the face of the earth”, “follow Atlantis” are more of a figure of speech.

– And about the tsunami, too, for the sake of a red word?

– No, a tsunami as a consequence of an earthquake in the center of the sea for the Antalya region can be much more terrible than tremors. And there is such a risk, although it is still difficult to say how strong the underwater tremors will be and what, accordingly, forces can provoke a tsunami.

According to experts, they did not aim to intimidate tourists, and the message to the local population was made just for the benefit of the guests: “hoteliers and homeowners are too frivolous about the risks, but they are real.”

The hoteliers of the resort province, for obvious reasons, are modestly silent, only the owner of several guesthouses in Side turned out to be a little more frank in an informal conversation:

– Yes, we were bypassed by people from the same commission, which, after the February earthquake, checked the seismic safety measures taken by the hotels. Again, everyone checked with the words that if Antalya allowed itself the same damage that was inflicted on 16 cities in the east of the country in February, then we would not recover in this life. So they convince not to ignore the measures for seismic resistance.

– And someone is his own enemy to ignore?

– No, of course not, but simply updating them every six months, as required, is now too expensive for many.

Turkish experts indirectly confirm this, saying that the forecasts are such that “the province of Antalya should live as if the earthquake is already tomorrow.” In the meantime, according to the commission, many buildings, including hotels, in the resorts of the province, including Alanya, Finike, Side, Beldibi, Belek and Kemer, are in need of major repairs and testing of seismic resistance and readiness for “other risks”. And the owners are trying to save on this.

– What are “other risks”? – I ask the experts of Bogazici University. “Maybe tourists should still be warned about something?”

– Well, they cannot strengthen the Turkish regions and cities and come up with a universal mechanism to counteract the “earthquake plus tsunami” catastrophe, based on the specifics of Antalya. This is done by scientists, and the task of the inhabitants of the province is to listen to what they are told by inspectors and seismic commissions.