Even as survivors continue to be pulled from the rubble following the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last week, the death toll continue to mount. As of this writing it was around 30,000. Why?
My speculations are:
- Low construction standards and lack of civil enforcement
- Crowding
- Poor civilian infrastructure—much of the area struck was out in the middle of nowhere and consequently hard to reach
- Poor government response—lot of Turks are pointing to this
- Poor preparedness—they really don’t have the equipment, medical resources, etc. to deal with an incident like this
Those all sound likely. I will say that mass casualties out in the middle of nowhere (rural areas for the US) are especially difficult. Rural facilities have very limited ability to cope with traumas. Choppers are fast but we dont have all that many and rural ambulance crews are generally short staffed much of the time. So it probably begins with poor construction but once you have the buildings go down if the initial injury doesnt kill you then lack of ability to rescue will do you in.
Steve
I would guess all of the above.
There was a picture circulating online that I can’t find at the moment that shows the building for the Turkish civil engineering society as untouched while surrounded by collapsed buildings.
As a point of comparison. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake was magnitude 8.0 and 100K died. In 1999, Turkey had a 7.6 magnitude earthquake and 18K died.
This was magnitude 7.8.
Sadly, its about par for the course given the power of the earthquake, the number of people living in the affected area and the level of economic development (i.e. amount of money spent on quality of construction).
Low construction standards and lack of civil enforcement
Any libertarian can tell you that this is not possible. The FAA, building codes, food regulations, health codes, etc. are unnecessary. They increase costs and make things less safe. Users become lazy, and they refuse to do proper inspections. (Does this include libertarians?)
Next, you will be trying to convince me that Boeing produced a deathtrap by cutting costs.