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Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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'By the scruff of the neck'
By Gareth Jenkins
13-year-old Ozge looking through a hole in the rubble of a collapsed building in the city of Sakarya while waiting to be rescued yesterday (photo: AP)
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A devastating earthquake laid waste to a huge swathe of north-western Turkey early Tuesday morning, killing thousands and injuring tens of thousands more. By midday yesterday, the official death toll stood at over 2,500, but was expected to at least double within the next 24 hours as more bodies were pulled from the wreckage.
The quake, measuring an estimated 7.4 on the Richter scale, struck at 3.02am on 17 August. Beginning with a low, grinding rumble, it brought crowded apartment buildings crashing down on their sleeping occupants and sent survivors tumbling into the streets, rushing to parks and open spaces for safety. Many stayed out all Tuesday and Wednesday night, afraid to return to their homes.
"It was as if God had taken the world by the scruff of its neck and just kept shaking," said Mehmet, a 32-year-old labourer.
The initial quake lasted 45 seconds but was followed by more than 300 aftershocks, 35 of them measuring more than 4.0 on the Richter scale, spreading death and destruction over more than 120km of the Anatolian fault line, which runs from Izmit to Istanbul. The epicentre was the town of Golcuk on the Gulf of Izmit, in the heart of Turkey's industrial zone.
"The town has just been flattened," said software analyst Lemi Tuncer, 42. "People are just standing around next to the ruins containing the bodies of their families. Some are crying. Other are just staring."
By midday yesterday, it was still too early to assess the full extent of the devastation. Turkish emergency services had been stretched to breaking point. Corpses lay in hospital corridors and many of the less seriously injured were being treated in car parks and gardens. Turkish rescue teams working around the clock had been bolstered by the arrival of foreign specialised search and recovery teams, while a host of countries, including Greece, Turkey's traditional enemy, had promised planeloads of humanitarian aid.
But the huge area of devastation made coordination of rescue efforts almost impossible. Most of the excavation of the flattened apartment blocks was being carried out by neighbours and relatives of those trapped inside, scrabbling with their bare hands at the twisted concrete. Many complained that they had received no assistance at all from the authorities and were forced to try to transport the injured to hospital in private cars and the backs of pick-up trucks. It is likely to be weeks before it is possible to make an accurate estimate of how many people died. Many are predicting that the final death toll may exceed 10,000.
Amidst the shock and the grief, there is also considerable anger. Almost all of the collapsed buildings are in poorer areas. Many of the deaths are a direct result of lax building regulations and unscrupulous contractors using slapdash construction methods and low-quality materials. In the centre of Izmit, some buildings have survived perfectly intact, while next to them whole apartment blocks have collapsed like houses of cards into heaps of rubble.
In addition to the human cost, the quake will also take its toll on an economy already mired in recession. Approximately two thirds of Turkey's industry is in the disaster zone. Many factories have been destroyed completely. There has also been severe damage to the infrastructure, with one of the two main highways linking Istanbul and the Turkish capital Ankara now completely impassable after the collapse of bridges. At midday yesterday a fire was still blazing out of control at Tupras, Turkey's largest oil refinery, as Turkish fire fighters desperately fought to prevent it from spreading from oil tanks to nearby natural gas storage depots.
On Tuesday, the visibly shocked Turkish prime minister, 75-year-old Bulent Ecevit, toured some of the worst hit areas. "It's terrible," he said, close to tears. "It is the worst disaster Turkey has suffered in my lifetime." (see p.9)
