Turkey’s devastating earthquake two weeks ago damaged 927,000 buildings, 118,000 of them so badly they collapsed or had to be demolished. The UN development agency, UNDP, published this balance sheet on Tuesday, a few hours after new aftershocks shook the affected region.
A UNDP spokeswoman made clear the extent of the destruction with the amount of rubble created (116 to 210 million tons) that can cover an area of 900 km2 with three meters high. The UN fears the spread of disease as bodies remain under rubble. The body of sporting director of Hatayspor football club, Taner Savut, was found this Tuesday.
Officially, the earthquake in Turkey claimed 42,300 lives, 5,900 people died in Syria. After examining burial documents in individual regions, the Turkish Medical Association has now expressed doubts about the numbers and announced that it would determine the number of burials in all municipalities by early March.
“For example, when 6,000 deaths were reported in Kahramanmaras, there were burial records for 11,000 people,” said a representative of the medical association. But that doesn’t mean the stats have been embellished. The dead from other provinces may have been brought to Kahramanmaras by relatives.
President Erdoğan promised to start reconstruction in March. Time is of the essence for him: parliamentary elections are scheduled for May.
The frustration of parts of the population in the face of the economic crisis, inflation and corruption was already enormous for a long time – it was increased by the slow start of rescue operations after the earthquake, the lack of protection against earthquakes and construction defects, which are responsible by many victims.
Hatay, one of the hardest-hit cities, is being revived “in full color”, Erdoğan said during a visit. Until then, the only splashes of color are the balloons that activists have placed in the rubble to honor the dead children.