Maside, the mother of a family, is exhausted. He doesn’t scream but wants, despairs, begs, and is even about to slap someone. She is surrounded by her mother, husband and daughter, suffering like her, trying to participate in the discussion. But the determined Maside is the one who makes the decisions. “But can’t you see, sir? We’ve lost everything. Everything! Our clothes are all we have. I understand what you’re saying, but why can’t we get into our house? Building.” still get out!” she encourages.
An official in front of him tries to explain to him that although he understands their situation, there are hundreds of thousands like them, everyone is the same and he can do nothing. “Ma’am, in our system your building is listed as follows: ‘heavily damaged’. It needs to be washed. They cannot go inside for their belongings. They can’t, I can’t let them. Forbidden. Dangerous. The building could collapse on them,” says the man.
“But we have everything there.” We have nothing. What are we going to do? They’re all there. Please,” asks Maside, trying not only to convince the man, but to deny herself what happened.
—Ma’am, I’m really sorry. I can’t tell you anything else. Now they have to wait. I don’t even know anything. They may try to make a judicial request to have some of their belongings returned to them before demolition. But now they can’t. It will take months to process. Nothing is clear yet.
Finally, after pleading and some grumbling, the family leaves. “They’re late for everything… So what are we going to do now, my love? Shall we go?” ‘ Maside asks her husband. The result is clear: The family has been living in Istanbul, Turkey for generations. Iskenderunone of the hardest hits Earthquake shaking southeast Turkey and northwest Syria It’s been over a week and she has no choice but to go. There is nothing left here.
a ghost town
Millions survivors They chose the same path. The only people left on the streets of affected cities in Turkey right now are people who have nowhere to run and nowhere to stay.
Throughout Iskenderun, tents they are scattered in what used to be barren lands and vacant lots. Almost no one wants to go back to their old home – they shouldn’t, they can’t and dare not. If so, of course, it’s still standing.
At first, during the earthquake’s urgency, the area was filled with people. saviors And volunteers: Turks and international teams took action to get as many people out of the rubble as possible.
The race is over: More than 200 hours have passed since the earthquake, almost all rescue operations are over, and now a different kind of army is swarming in the once bustling cities of southeastern Turkey. They are neither police, nor soldiers, nor humanitarian aid volunteers – at the same time. They are an army of more than 10,000 men. civil engineers.
“Currently, our task is to enter all buildings in all affected cities. assess the damage and decide if structural problems and therefore whether they should be shot. It typically takes about 20 minutes per building and what we do is a visual inspection of the columns and main walls of the first floors. if we see cracks “At first glance, it seems that the building should be demolished,” says Gökhan, an inspector of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, who was sent to Iskenderun.
“If we don’t see cracks, we’ll find it by scraping and painting the plaster. If there is, it’s bad. If there are no cracks, the building is solid. lab work It’s an urgent visual work we’re currently doing in the following months,” adds this engineer.
A race against time
His teammate next to him shakes his head. “What we’re doing is urgent because our job is to ensure that the vast majority of people who still have homes but live in tents can return to their buildings as soon as possible. That’s why we try to get there as soon as we can. As soon as we can,” she says. Despite the speed, engineering teams probably Two months cataloging all the houses in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquake.
“I actually didn’t know how to give the numbers. Here at Alejandreta I used to say it with the eye about half of the buildings will have serious structural damage. But I talked to my colleagues assigned to other cities and things have changed a lot. someone who is in Antioch He said he believes about 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged and will likely need to be demolished. This is a real tragedy,” says Gökhan.
Time is running out, especially for those who have been sleeping and left nothing for more than a week in the open or in the camps set up by Turkish emergency teams.
“All this in one night chaosAnd I think it will stay that way for a long time. I think the state has done everything it can, but the situation is very bad,” explains Hüseyin, a resident of Alejandreta, who lives in a field close to the centre.
“It’s very dangerous to be on the street at night and there thieves Those who break into empty houses to steal jewelry and televisions,” the man explains. There are Army commandos patrolling in civilian clothes but this is still very dangerous. The city is empty, there is no one left. I don’t know what will happen to us.”