The possible amount of damage from earthquakes in Turkey became known

It’s about billions of dollars

The sad result of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria was not only numerous human casualties, but also large-scale destruction of infrastructure. Historical objects were also damaged, and the scale of the current tragedy began to be compared with the strongest Izmit earthquake in 1999. “MK” compared these two events and found out how much damage can be caused by the current cataclysms in the region.

On February 6, even those who had not even heard of it before learned about the ancient fortress of Gaziantep. A deadly earthquake of magnitude 7.4 caused the destruction of the castle, which is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

It is truly painful for any person to watch the footage of the fall of the fortress. Some of the castle bastions in the Shahinbey area were badly damaged, and the ruins of the castle collapsed onto the road along with the iron railings around the area. Some of the black stone walls and the retaining wall around the castle, which was used as a panorama museum, were also damaged. The castle was used as a guard post during the Roman Empire. The historical castle has been restored many times and took its final form after the restoration in the early 2000s.

Describing the earthquake as the country’s worst disaster since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake in the last century, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that while other provinces relatively close to the quake suffered minor damage, these 10 provinces suffered major damage.

It was reported that the most serious landslides and casualties from the earthquake occurred in the districts of Pazardzhik, Elbistan and the city of Turkoglu in the Kahramanmarash region.

As a result of the earthquake, a hospital in the Iskenderun district of Hatay city collapsed, the runways at Hatay and Adana airports were seriously damaged, and flights were immediately stopped. The provinces of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras were also closed to civilian flights, and Turkish Airlines announced it was planning additional flights to the earthquake zone.

As a result of damage to the natural gas transmission line in Gaziantep, the supply of blue fuel was stopped in the provinces of Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmarash.

According to Yunus Sezer, the head of the Emergency Management Department (AFAD), almost 3,000 buildings collapsed during the earthquake in Turkey.

Almost immediately, Turkish politicians and the world media remembered not only the 1939 earthquake, but also a similar event in 1999. It happened in the city of Izmit, 90 kilometers south of Istanbul. It began almost at the same time as the element of this year, about 3 o’clock in the morning. In 45 seconds after the first shock, 150 aftershocks occurred, the magnitude was 7.6 on the Richter scale.

According to official figures, the number of victims was 17,217 dead (according to others – about 40 thousand) and 43,959 wounded. The damage was first estimated at 25 billion dollars, and later it was increased by 5-7 billion. That is, in fact, the disaster cost Turkey then 30-32 billion dollars. And such a large amount is quite understandable, since as a result of the tragedy of 1999, approximately 120 thousand buildings could not be restored at all, 50 thousand were seriously damaged, about 2 thousand more buildings had minor damage (but still required restoration), several factories collapsed, a fire broke out at a local oil refinery (remember, as a result of an earthquake on February 6, 2023, a gas pipeline exploded in Hatay province).

By the way, in 1999, only 13 countries provided assistance to the victims of the Izmit earthquake, sending planes with medicines, food and specialists to provide first aid and rescue work. This time, at least 45 states are known to have responded to the call of the Turkish and Syrian authorities.

It is still difficult to talk about how much damage this time. The earthquake has just happened, the rubble will be dismantled for a long time. The reported death toll is clearly inconclusive, but still, local risk management agencies have timidly already assessed the potential damage. Approximately, it will amount to 15 billion dollars (so far this is somewhat less than in 1999). According to the same agencies, the number of victims, most likely, is estimated at 4,000 people to 16,000 people, if you count the total with those killed in Syria.

We should not lose sight of the fact that the Dutch seismologist Frank Hougerbits (who predicted a powerful earthquake in Turkey) and a number of other experts did not rule out repeated cataclysms in the near future.

Read also: “When Turkey stops shaking: a scientist gave a forecast”