Elazığ disaster exposes inadequacy of mud-brick construction

Hundreds are now homeless and sheltering in tents since the pre-dawn quake, which exposed Turkey's shortcomings in constructing sturdy homes near the country's two major fault lines.

Centered near the town of Başyurt, the earthquake caught many residents as they slept, shaking the area's poorly made buildings into piles of rubble. The fact that the tremor's magnitude was below 7 and that nearby reinforced concrete construction survived the quake with little damage served to highlight the inadequacy of the mud-brick buildings.

Kandilli Observatory Director Mustafa Erdik told reporters on Monday that although the magnitude of the quake in terms of the energy released measured 6, it was magnitude 8 in terms of the intensity of the quake, which is based on local damage experienced during an earthquake.

Officials said the 51 victims from the villages of Göçmeler, Okçular, Yukarı Kanatlı, Aşağı Kanatlı, Yukarı Demirci and Aşağı Demirci were caught by the quake in their mud-brick houses, adding that most of the victims were from Okçular and Yukarı Demirci.

“It is not small earthquakes that kill people, it is unlicensed contractors and disorderly construction that kill,” the Ankara-based Civil Engineers Federation said in a statement yesterday.

State officials acknowledge that homes in eastern areas prone to earthquakes are not earthquake resilient, as the Elazığ quake demonstrated.

The Elazığ earthquake on Monday shook the area's poorly made buildings into piles of rubble, killing 51.

Speaking to reporters at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport as he was leaving for Saudi Arabia yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed that the death toll was 51, blaming the region’s mud-brick buildings for the death toll. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, Health Minister Recep Akdağ, Public Works and Housing Minister Mustafa Demir and State Minister Cevdet Yılmaz are currently in Elazığ, the prime minister said. He said the government housing agency, the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ), would build quake-resistant homes in the area. Erdoğan said TOKİ President Erdoğan Bayraktar had also gone to Elazığ with other TOKİ officials to assess the damage and plan a recovery. “Those we have lost cause us the most grief. Adobe-style construction is the architectural style of the region. Unfortunately, the price of this style has been very high for Turkey,” he also said on Monday.

“We must ensure the resilience of buildings,” Labor Minister Faruk Çelik also said yesterday. “We live in an earthquake zone, and we don’t know what can happen to us from one day to the next.”

Health Minister Recep Akdağ also said on Tuesday that the mud-brick homes typical of Turkey’s impoverished villages “topple with the slightest of tremors, and those caught beneath die from lack of air.” It has been this way for a hundred years, and we have to overcome this, the minister said.

Governor Muammer Erol, speaking to reporters in Okçular village during his visit with Bayraktar and Mehmet Ersoy, president of the Prime Ministry’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate, said TL 500,000 was transferred to the Elazığ Provincial Administration from the Prime Ministry’s aid fund soon after the disaster. He said the aid would be distributed to quake victims as relief and financial aid. All the victims were pulled from the debris soon after the tremor, the governor said, and 14 teams have been working to assess the damage. He also added that teams from the Elazığ Provincial Administration, the State Waterworks Authority (DSİ) and the Highway Directorate are soon to begin removing the debris.

President Abdullah Gül also said yesterday in response to being asked whether he will go to Elazığ that he would not. “The ministers have gone there, and the state is doing whatever it can. When a president or a prime minister goes to a disaster region, it is more of a drawback to the efforts. That’s why I didn’t go,” he said.

With aftershocks continuing to shake Elazığ since Monday’s quake, hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and around bonfires in the disaster area last night, seeking relief from the winter cold. More than 100 aftershocks measuring up to a magnitude of 5.5 shook the region on Monday alone. In addition to the deaths, 34 people were being treated for injuries, Turkey’s crisis center said.

Abdulkerim Şekerdağ, 72, said he had just risen for early morning prayers when the quake hit.

“The jolt threw me onto the ground,” he told The Associated Press. “When I got up I checked my animals and then I checked on my neighbor. Two of them were buried. We pulled them out,” he said, adding that they were alive but injured.

Men used shovels and their bare hands to dig two bodies out from under piles of dirt, rubble and concrete blocks, video footage showed. Both bodies were covered in blankets and carried away. One appeared to be a baby or young child.

“Everything has been knocked down, there is not a stone left in place,” said Yadın Apaydın, village head of Yukarı Kanatlı, where three died.

Fifteen people were killed in the nearby village of Yukarı Demirci, Governor Muammer Erol said, while four each were killed in the villages of Kayalık and Göçmezler and 10 others died after being taken to a hospital in the town of Kovancılar.

Most of the dead were immediately buried. Barns were also destroyed, killing many farm animals. Half a dozen dead cows were seen partially buried near one collapsed home. One man, Hacı Şekerdağ, said he lost eight cows and calves, his main livelihood.

The Turkish Red Crescent set up tents and villagers laid out plastic sheeting to shelter them from the cold and dirt. The government said it rushed helicopter ambulances, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens to the stricken area. The quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingöl and Diyarbakır, where residents fled to the streets in panic and stayed outdoors. Schools were closed for two days. In Tunceli province, the quake caused one school’s walls to crack, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.