News Center- The death toll of the earthquakes centered in Maraş and affected 10 cities keeps rising. While the search and rescue efforts continue to take people stuck under debris, no search and rescue efforts have been started for those who are stuck under debris in some areas yet. At least 31,974 people have lost their lives in the earthquakes, according to the latest figures from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

‘Death toll would have been less’

The Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers (Turkish: İnşaat Mühendisleri Odası-İMO) has released a report on the earthquakes centered in Maraş. In the report, the chamber emphasized that earthquakes are natural events “but human-made buildings turn these natural events into disasters. If these buildings had been built according to international standards and earthquake regulations, these buildings would not have collapsed but only damaged and the earthquakes would not have turned into a disaster. Many buildings would have been damaged but the death toll would have been less.”

Many collapsed buildings were built after 2000

According to the report, many collapsed buildings were built after 2000. “Most cities badly affected by the earthquakes are built on fertile agricultural lands. A qualified audit should be carried out in all construction processes. However, the construction audit remains incapable in our country for various reasons.”

The report also noted that the concrete quality of the buildings built in the 1980s and 90s, and even in the early 2000s is very poor.

20 buildings can collapse in Amed at any moment

In Amed, one of the 10 cities affected by the earthquakes, the damage assessment efforts started by teams consisting of 80 members of the Diyarbakır Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanization and 120 members of the Chamber of Civil Engineers continue. According to the received reports, the damage assessment efforts have been completed for 15,000 buildings out of 71,000 buildings in Amed’s Rezan (Turkish: Bağlar), Peyas, Yenişehir and Sur districts. 20 buildings in the districts are expected to collapse at any moment while 300 buildings are determined as heavily damaged.  

In the city, the search and rescue efforts in four buildings out of seven collapsed buildings have reportedly ended. The earthquakes have killed at least 380 people and injured at least 902 people in Amed until now.