Predicting Earthquakes: Fault Lines Point To Istanbul?

Ashley Gleek / Alaskan Dispatch

From his balcony, Yasin Kenar looks down on the neighborhood where he grew up.

“This one is not safe,” he says, pointing to a five-story apartment building in Sumer. The top four floors jut out like a rib cage over the foundation. “And that one and this one.”

Yasin says that, if a major earthquake struck Istanbul, one-third of the buildings on his street would collapse. On the walls of his own balcony there are deep cracks left over from a 7.6-magnitude earthquake that struck the neighboring province of Kocaeli, 43 miles from Istanbul, in 1999. That quake killed more than 17,000 people.

“My building is not safe. I am a million percent sure that the building is not strong [enough for an earthquake],” Yasin said. “If we will not be ready for an earthquake, too many buildings will fall down and too many people will die.”

City officials know how dangerous neighborhoods like Sumer are, where buildings are far from up to code and the streets are so narrow that in the event of a disaster, a fire truck couldn’t drive down them.

So now, after several failed attempts, authorities are attempting to reconstruct many of Istanbul’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. But the plans are not without controversy. Many residents will be forced to give up their homes and human rights groups worry the plan is designed more to enable more valuable re-development than to ensure the safety of residents.

continue at the Alaskan Dispatch:

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/predicting-earthquakes-fault-lines-point-istanbul

Fair Use Notice: This post may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are makingsuch material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any suchcopyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest inreceiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that gobeyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.