{"id":40496,"date":"2019-08-15T21:23:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T21:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40496"},"modified":"2019-08-15T21:23:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T21:23:07","slug":"intense-bombardment-continues-as-syrian-troops-advance-in-idlib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40496","title":{"rendered":"Intense bombardment continues as Syrian troops advance in Idlib"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nISTANBUL: Twenty years after a devastating earthquake ravaged the northwest of Turkey, Istanbulites live with the knowledge that another \u201cBig One\u201d is unavoidable, and that their city of 16 million is not prepared.
On Saturday, Turkey will mark the anniversary of the 7.4-magnitude quake that hit Izmit \u2014 around 100 kilometers east of Istanbul \u2014 on August 17, 1999, killing at least 17,400 people, including 1,000 within the economic capital of the country.
The question for seismologists is not if another earthquake will hit Istanbul, which lies along the volatile North Anatolian tectonic plate. The only question is when.
Sukru Ersoy, a specialist at the city\u2019s Yildiz Technical University, estimates it could come within the next decade.
\u201cIn the worst case, the quake could reach a magnitude of 7.7,\u201d he told AFP. \u201cIs Istanbul ready for that? Sadly not.\u201d
According to him, such a quake would destroy thousands of buildings, leaving a \u201cterrifying\u201d number of dead and paralysing Turkey\u2019s economic and tourist hub.
The former capital of the Ottoman empire has suffered many earthquakes through its long history. In 1509, the city was shaken so badly that the Ottoman authorities referred to the incident as \u201cthe little apocalypse.\u201d
Since then, a rapid-response unit \u2014 the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority \u2014 has been created, quake-proof hospitals have been built, and systems to cut gas lines installed.
But experts say the main problem is that Istanbul has tens of thousands of poorly-built buildings, thrown up during the construction boom of recent decades with little regulatory oversight.
The 1999 quake showed how many buildings had been built using dodgy cement made from unsuitable sand dredged from the sea.
\u201cThere was a moment of reflection just after the 1999 earthquake,\u201d said Nusret Suna, head of the Chamber of Building Engineers for Istanbul. \u201cBut with time, fatalism took over again. People said \u2018It\u2019s destiny\u2019 and people moved on to other things.\u201d
Although regulations have become stricter in the past 20 years, the collapse of a residential building in Istanbul this February, in which 20 people were killed, renewed fears about the solidity of the city\u2019s infrastructure.
There have been efforts to rebuild \u201cat-risk\u201d buildings in sturdier fashion, but Suna said a much bigger mobilization is needed to reach basic levels of earthquake-proofing.
The new mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has vowed to fast-track a plan, including efforts to provide more green spaces \u2014 notoriously lacking in the city \u2014 that can be used to gather survivors.
In theory, each neighborhood is supposed to have an assembly point for this purpose, but many have been lost under new parkings and shopping centers.
Without rapid changes, Istanbul risks being plunged into \u201creal chaos\u201d by a serious quake, warned Recep Salci, head of the non-government Search and Rescue Association, which was a key first-responder in 1999.
\u201cWe cannot prevent an earthquake, but we can enormously reduce its consequences,\u201d he said, citing the examples of Japan and Chile, which are similarly vulnerable but have taken radical measures to brace themselves.
Suna, at the chamber of engineers, said it would take 15 to 20 years to fully prepare Istanbul.
\u201cSince 1999, 20 years have been lost. But we must not be discouraged from the task.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL: Twenty years after a devastating earthquake ravaged the northwest of Turkey, Istanbulites live with the knowledge that another \u201cBig One\u201d is unavoidable, and that their city of 16 million is not prepared.On Saturday, Turkey will mark the anniversary of the 7.4-magnitude quake that hit Izmit \u2014 around 100 kilometers east of Istanbul \u2014 on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}