After every major earthquake we have experienced throughout history, we said, “We will be prepared for the next one”. We have seen since February 6 that we were not ready at all. So what happened? Where did all those exercises, all those lessons go? What or what did we do wrong?
The destruction we are experiencing is enormous. We cannot erase their traces. However, this time we can really be “prepared” before we encounter another earthquake. We can sit down and look for someone to blame, but it won’t do anyone any good. Therefore Let’s start by blaming ourselves. Where did we go wrong?
We acted unconsciously throughout this entire process. But many things we do, willingly or unwillingly, no use; it did damage. Because our mistakes did not start in the first minutes of the earthquake. It was from much earlier.
Before the earthquakes we experienced, many of us did not even have an earthquake bag at home.
Today, on television and social media, “with the title of “preparing an earthquake bag” many videos, content is coming out. Everywhere it is explained how the earthquake kit is prepared.
It is not a long time ago; If we could go back to February 5, we would see that almost no one had an earthquake kit because one day We didn’t even believe we needed it.
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We did not fix the items in our homes.
Like the closet in your home, the library fixing furniture that can tip over to the wall had to. Of course, we all knew this simple information. However, until now, most of us have been content with just “knowing”.
We did not care about applications that can help in emergencies such as earthquakes.
During a disaster, when we have so many unnecessary applications on our phones apps that can help we didn’t download.
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We did not make an “emergency plan” with our family and close circle.
like an earthquake in an emergency We did not set a place to meet. We didn’t discuss and plan what we could do before we gathered here.
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We have illegal floors in our homes.
We were happy to hear about the zoning amnesty, and we wanted to have one more floor in our house. However, this is our building. will carry an extra loadWe didn’t think it could cause bigger problems.
We cut the columns and beams just to have more space.
We wanted larger areas in our shops, which are usually located on the lower floors of the buildings. We reduced the load-bearing strength of the building just to enlarge one of our rooms. For this, we damaged the columns and beams. sometimes through we passed water pipes sometimes though “What if a colon is missing?” We eliminated it completely.
Columns we cut, drilled, broke It was like the feet of our building, and unfortunately, many buildings that could not stand in the earthquake we experienced turned into rubble.
We resisted urban transformation.
When the municipalities we are affiliated with knock on our door for urban transformation, “We don’t want it!” we said, in which we may die We didn’t leave our homes.
We trusted the contractors, we did not check the soundness of our buildings.
First thing to do when moving to a new house was to check the durability of the building. But we didn’t do that either. We did not have our buildings risk assessment done, we did not look at the construction reports, we ignored the ground survey, we did not have the columns and beams checked.
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We preferred cheap labor.
Maybe the financial difficulties we experienced, maybe the thought of “keep our money in our pockets” pushed us to build more affordable buildings. We built huge buildings, but we got whoever was doing it cheaper. We did not consider the quality of the materials he used; we even asked for a discount, We made a bargain with our lives. We said, “Let’s use C20 concrete instead of C30”.
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….And then we experienced these:
Our mistakes are not over: From the first minutes of the earthquake, we started with the wrong use of social media.
In particular, people who were under the rubble on Twitter were trying to make their voices heard with their posts. Instead of supporting them with our posts, we to show ourselves we tried. We did this from the first minutes of the earthquake.
With our shares on social media, live broadcasts we laughed(!). Some of us even exaggerated “Let there be an earthquake, let there be more!” he napped.
We unintentionally caused the spread of false information that would lead people to fear and panic.
Spreading and spreading on social media “The dam burst in Hatay!” The news suddenly panicked the entire public. at the head of the wrecks Even search and rescue teams began to flee.
Although it was soon understood that this information was a lie, unfortunately, this situation is not clear to search and rescue workers. wasted time. However, the people under the rubble were racing against time.
We shared the people who came out of the rubble and experienced difficult things on our social media accounts.
We forgot that they have a “future”. What we do the day after tomorrow that these posts may appear in front of them again and again. we didn’t think.
With dozens of people under the rubble, we were looking for something to rejoice in. We added “Miracle” in front of their namesThat’s what we called. We didn’t let them experience their pain, we wanted them to talk.
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We couldn’t coordinate.
We wanted to help the earthquake area, even from afar. Some of us rented trucks for this, filled the aid they collected from their surroundings and sent them to the earthquake zone. So who would receive these aids there? No one welcomed aid poured into the streets.
We should have coordinated with AFAD and Kızılay and sent our aid in this way. Instead, every action we do on our own, complexity in the earthquake zone. caused.
We didn’t even look at what we sent to the earthquake zone to help.
Maybe it’s been sitting in a corner of our house for a long time, many things we use / do not use We sent it to the earthquake zone. But we didn’t even look at what we sent. We sent used items that could increase the risk of disease in the area.
As a result, people waiting for help nightgown, swimsuit, evening dress encountered such items. Just for this reason, the aid boxes were sorted again before and after they went to the earthquake zone.
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It was not enough, we unconsciously flocked to the earthquake zone.
Roads in the area were heavily damaged or closed. Transportation was very difficult. We didn’t want to sit and wait, we loaded our cars and hit the road. We have already filled a limited number of roads that remain intact. Even some of us to share from the earthquake zone gone.
Help that should go before ushad a hard time reaching the region in this crowd that we also caused.
We applauded those who came out of the rubble while there were people who have not yet been reached in the earthquake area.
Those who came out from under the rubble say that there are others inside, “Save them too!” he was saying. So what did we do? We applauded and cheered the person who forgot that those people were still there. We suppressed the voices of others. Maybe we even demolished their hopes with the voices they heard/did not hear.
FROM WHERE?
Because we were not aware, we were thinking well-intentioned and we did not know the truth. We were unaware of the disasters that could happen to us. We learned most of what we know in the exercises and lessons we did in elementary school and high school. Information such as how we should treat someone who has come out of the wreckage. They didn’t teach in any class. We were trying to help ourselves, but none of us had search and rescue training. We were in the midst of a great disaster and we couldn’t help those who were panicked and educated.
Because our education level is low. According to TUIK 2021 data; 2.5% of Turkey’s population is still illiterate, 10% did not go to any school; 22.5% primary school, 25% primary or secondary school, 22.4% high school graduate. In other words, most of our country’s primary school, high school Didn’t even see the exercises; therefore, they have no knowledge of what to do in emergencies such as earthquakes.
Because nothing in real life It’s not like in exercises or lessons. We all run when we hear someone we know/don’t know cry for help. The important thing is; that we do not repeat the same mistakes when we encounter such a situation again. But none of us are politicians. “What are the precautions you will take against earthquakes?” We don’t even ask. to the authorities “What will we do if there is an earthquake?” we are not saying. When this is the case, unfortunately, something goes wrong with every step we take.
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