Post earthquake Recovery efforts in Turkey/Syria continue

 It's been a month since the severe earthquake in Turkey/Syria hit, and it hasn't been in the news much, so I thought I'd check in. 

Here is a BBC report:

Sigh.

Several things to notice: NPR report here.

Many have left for other areas, presumably to government shelters or to live with relatives.

But some have stayed: Some people don't want to leave because what is left of their possessions are being stolen by looters. 

And it's wintertime, so it's cold when you live in tents.. And simple things taken for granted in the modern world are lacking: not just electricity and gas for cooking, but clean water for drinking, bathing, and washing clothes/diapers.

Sigh.

Earthquakes in that area of Turkey/Syria are alas common, and often older homes are the ones that collapse, because they are not built up to standard.

But one of the backstory of these buildings collapsing is corruption.

From StrategyPage:

The big earthquake and its aftershocks killed over 46,000 people in Turkey and damaged over 200,000 buildings (one report said 215,000).,,.

The February 6 quake killed over 6,000 people in Syria. The Turkish government says around two million survivors are now living in temporary accommodations.

A second earthquake occurred on February 20. It did far less damage but seriously hindered relief operations. All Turkish media report the February 6 quake as the worst natural disaster in the history of modern Turkey. '

There are political consequences. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing intense criticism for his slow response to the massively destructive February 6 earthquake

The earthquakes have also made governmental failure to enforce construction standards an election issue. What lies behind the failure? A substantial number of citizens think it was corruption by national and local officials.

italics mine.

Here in the Philippines, if you build, you have to have the city engineers approve the building. The concrete blocks must be reinforced by iron bars, and be able to support the upper floors (which is why we never put the second floor on our old house: it was built 40 years ago and the engineers said it wouldn't support it).

Poor quality construction  material is a problem. So often you pay extra to buy western or Japanese/Taiwan products (and hope it is not mislabled) since local and Chinese imports might not be up to standard.

So yes, corruption kills. And that could have election consequences in Turkey, and of course, what happens in Turkey (a NATO country) has implications not only for NATO but for the war in the Ukraine. 

I didn't live here in the Philippines after the big 1990 earthquake, or after Mt Pinatubo erupted, but since we get hit by typhoons every two to three years, some of the problems of recovery is similar.

There are a lot of people out there helping those displaced or hurt by the earthquake. The international groups get most of the publicity, but private help by relatives, friends, and from the large Turkish diaspora.

We saw this after the big typhoons. The private relief often is wasted because of logistical problems, but here, after typhoons, often famlies got a car and filled it with stuff for their relatives. And of course, families took in friends, relatives, and even strangers who needed shelter.

 Now, one thing we noticed when we were hit by a bad typhoon and had no water or electricity for a week, was that our neighbors all came here to charge their cellphones so they could get in touch with relatives.

yes, we have landlines here (which we use for business) but most countries now have cellphone towers and cheap cellphones. When I first came here, I had to go to internet cafes to go on line because the landline internet was slow. But now we have fast internet. When there is no electricity, we use a generator, and usually cellphone towers are working. so, we can check  our cellphones to get on line. 

The report from the local telecom companies there is a month old, but apparently they did respond to help keep communications up.

State-owned Türk Telekom said that it has also dispatched base stations, and said that its 105-person Türk Telekom Search and Rescue Team had deployed in the area. Both telecoms companies said that they were making domestic mobile and landline calls free, as well as WiFi hotspots in affected regions. However, the operators called on citizens to only use the phone for emergency calls.`

and yes, Elon Musk offered to help, but was told Starlink wasn't needed. 

The Turkish government reportedly declined an offer for SpaceX's Starlink dishes, which are not licensed in the country, claiming they had sufficient satellite connectivity.

 We had satellite cable tv and satellite internet years ago when I worked in isolated areas with the IHS. So I presume this is what they are talking about.