Another magnitude 6.3 earthquake at a depth of two km (1.2 miles) struck the Turkey-Syria border region on Monday February 20, 2023, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.
Monday’s report came hours after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkey that Washington would help ‘for as long as it takes’ after three devastating, deadly earthquakes in the same region two weeks ago.
On Sunday, the mayor of Hatay in Turkey declared more than 21,000 people were confirmed dead in the southeastern province amid the brutal quakes two weeks ago – accounting for almost half the overall death toll of 46,000 people.
Lutfu Savas told local broadcaster HaberTurk that an additional 24,000 people had been injured, with makeshift medical facilities completely overwhelmed.
‘At least 80 per cent of the buildings must be demolished in Antakya,’ Savas said. Antakya is the capital of Hatay and the site of the ancient city of Antioch.
The number of confirmed deaths in Turkey due to the earthquake rose to 40,689, Yunus Sezer, head of the country’s disaster agency AFAD, said. Roughly six thousand more people lost their lives across the border in Syria.
Sezer told journalists in Turkey’s capital Ankara that search and rescue work in nine of the 11 provinces hit by the quake had ended as efforts focused on demolishing unstable buildings to prevent further deaths.
Rescue operations are ongoing in Kahramanmaras, the site of the epicentre and Hatay ‘We continue these efforts every day with the hope of reaching a living brother or sister,’ he said.
But there have been no signs of anyone being dug from the rubble alive since three members of one family – a mother, father and 12-year-old boy – were extracted from a collapsed building in Hatay on Saturday. The boy later died.
The death toll now sits at more than 46,000 across both Turkey and Syria, but the U.N. has said the full scope of the deaths may take time to determine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in southern Turkey early Monday morning and set off on a tour of the earthquake disaster zone, including of Hatay, accompanied by his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Blinken is on his first trip to NATO ally Turkey since he took office two years ago and will visit a tent city in Hatay established for those displaced by the earthquake, before touring an aid distribution centre.
The top U.S. diplomat will also inspect American aid efforts and speak to members of USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team, a quick reaction group of disaster experts.
He will fly to Ankara later Sunday for discussions with Turkish officials on Monday, including an anticipated meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Some 105,794 buildings checked by Turkey’s Environment and Urbanisation Ministry are either destroyed or so badly damaged as to require demolition, the ministry said today.
Of these, 20,662 had collapsed, the statement said. The damaged or destroyed buildings contained more than 384,500 units, mostly residential apartments.
Turkey lies on multiple fault lines and as a result infrastructure legislation dictates that many structures must be reinforced and constructed in such a way as to comply with strict building codes.
There was a huge investment in the last 14 years since the 1999 earthquake of more than $1 billion on retrofitting buildings to ensure they comply with the standards, but most of that was done around Istanbul and Ankara – the big metropolises in the north.
In the southern provinces devastated by last week’s quakes however, a lack of oversight – and a loophole in government policy which allows builders and developers found to have fallen short of standards to pay fines rather than be forced to improve their buildings – means thousands of people likely died as a result of poor-quality building practices.
