OT: Earthquake in Turkey...

[Guest guest]

Hi Sandi,

 

> Butch,

> Glad to hear you are ok.

 

Thanks mucho .. :-)

 

> Does Turkey have these often being on the Anatolian fault.

 

We have 30 or 40 tremors a month somewhere in the country, but loss of

life hasn't occured in more than a year. There are many fault lines in

Turkey .. and Greece. The Agean Sea, Black Sea, Sea of Marmara, Straits

of Bosphorous and all the Greek and Turkish Agean Islands were created

by earthquakes.

 

In the last century, from 1900 through end of 2000, Turkey had 56 quakes

above 6 on the Richtor .. with amn officially reported loss of life of

78,826 people. We gotta add to that cause there are always

unregistered. illegal immigrants and refugees hiding in the inner cities

... or in some cases, just migrants from the village who haven't

registered. Some think we should add as much as ten percent to that

figure.

 

Someday .. Istanbul will be hit. Its on a fault ... folks didn't know

that until after 1999. It was believed that the Marmara Fault ran only

under the sea but a noted Turkish professor started researching ... and

some American professors joined him. With sophisticated underwater

gear, they determined that a line of the fault headed into Istanbul - a

city of over 13 million people.

 

Istanbul has been spared in recent history ... but the 99 quake

heralded a new era and now, its not a matter of IF but a matter of

WHEN.

 

The good professor recently had a stroke and is now in a coma. Many

folks are trying to get him out of it .. using music, odors from burnt

aromatic

materials, songs, and whatever .. he is a Turkish national treasure now

and folks are afraid to lose him.

 

> At least it was not as devastating as the one in 1999. Sandi

 

Right you are. The epicenter of that quake was under the Turkish Naval

Base in Golcuk ... lost barracks of officers and seamen ... and the town

of Golcuk was devastated. I couldn't find ONE standing building that

did not have structural damage. Rescue workers/vehicles were so

numerous that the police couldn't control traffic on the main roads

without making them one way for periods of time .. no room for vehicles

to pass as dozers had to cut a path through buildings that had fallen

onto the roads. Once I got in, I stayed in .. it was easier than going

out again.

 

Nature is powerful .. amazing power. I have a photo of a bus that was

thrown through the air and into the second floor of a building - then

the building came down with the bus still hanging out of a second floor

room.

 

Th e 99 quake forced the government to pass a law requiring mandatory

earthquake insurance by apartment owners. More than half the folks

(owners/renters) had none ... and the situation would have continued if

not for this law. Sometimes, Big Brother has to step in. Butch