“The chandelier staggered, the door shook”: how the Turkish earthquake was felt in Antalya

The whole city is collecting help for the victims

Two strong earthquakes in the southeast of Turkey have claimed the lives of more than a thousand people. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they have become the most powerful since 1939. An MK correspondent in Antalya told how it felt in the Turkish province.

From the very morning in the groups of Antalya, a roll call began in the districts: “We live in Sarisu on the sixth floor, the animals did not sleep, and we could not. The house was shaking”, “Mahmutlar, like in a train … very noticeable”, “Liman, it was shaking a lot. The cat woke up 10 minutes before.

True, many note that they did not feel any shocks at all: “Do I live in some other Antalya? Nothing at all from the word at all.

It largely depends on the number of floors. Those who live higher up could feel the shaking a little more strongly. I found out about what happened only early in the morning, when the phone began to burst from calls asking if everything was in order.

Judging by the reports, if Antalya was shaking, then a few minutes, no more. Those who felt the earthquake left their homes and were afraid to go back because of the risk of aftershocks. Aftershocks were, but barely perceptible.

It’s a completely different feeling when you turn on the TV. The full scale of the tragedy becomes clear. The number of victims is growing every minute. Types of destroyed cities do not leave indifferent. In Antalya, including Russian-speaking residents, they opened a collection of humanitarian aid: heaters, tents, blankets, warm clothes and food are carried to local collection points.

I managed to get through to the international line of the Red Crescent only on the seventh attempt, the line was busy. They wrote down my contact details and promised to inform me about the collection point later. Some residents themselves are going to go to the most affected provinces to bring help on their own.

Official authorities also did not stand aside. Construction equipment, medical transport and search and rescue teams left Antalya for Kahramanmarash.

If we talk about the famous resort, then the city shakes quite often. Some areas are bigger, others smaller, but mostly you don’t really notice it either there or there. New houses in Turkey are built with earthquake resistance in mind. Buildings are built with strong special frames – a strict law, the implementation of which the government carefully monitors. But it was introduced only in 2007. Therefore, older buildings are at risk of not being able to withstand.

However, the probability of strong earthquakes is not the highest here. The whole country is divided into 5 zones according to the degree of seismic activity. The first, “red zone” is the most dangerous, then in descending order. The province of Antalya is in the fourth zone.

The current tremors have become one of the most powerful in 80 years. The last time the most devastating earthquake occurred was in 1999. Then the epicenter was near the industrial city of Izmit, located 80 kilometers east of Istanbul. The city was destroyed almost to the ground, the fire engulfed the local oil refinery, and Istanbul was left without electricity. The number of victims in the country then exceeded 10 thousand people, 25 thousand were injured, 600 thousand people were left homeless.

Read also: “On TV they say that the next one is Antalya”: Russians in Turkey spoke about the earthquake”