AFAD director explained: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 and above can occur anywhere at any time.

Making a statement in Sivas, where he came to attend the symposium, Tatar reminded that the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş on February 6 affected many provinces.

Stating that aftershocks continue in the region, Tatar also explained that life continues.

Stressing that the state has mobilized all its power and means to restore the region after the earthquakes, Tatar said, “When you look at it, we are talking about a really big disaster, two major earthquakes that occurred 9 hours apart, affecting 11 provinces. When you look at it, there is no other natural disaster in the history of the world that, when you look at it, creates a surface rupture of about 500 kilometers when it breaks, and then has an impact on an area of ​​​​about 120,000 square kilometers. said.

Noting that the point Turkey has reached in healing the wounds after the earthquake is a great success, Tatar said, “In this sense, we can’t be more proud of our country and our state.” he said.

Pointing out that Turkey is an earthquake country, Tatar said that these tremors would not be the first nor the last.

Stating that there are many active faults that have the potential to produce earthquakes in many parts of the country, Tatar said, “These faults have the potential to produce earthquakes of magnitude 5-5.5 and above at any time.” he said.

Tatar continued:

* As a country, we learned many subjects after the earthquake. These earthquakes really changed our minds in every sense, it was a great experience.

* It has been a great experience in terms of examples of how disaster management should be, both in terms of the country and in the world.

*I can proudly say that we visited many places, people and researchers from different countries of the world came to our country, the common opinion of all of them is that it is not an easy task to heal the wounds of this disaster in such a short time.

*Our country is a country with a high potential to be exposed to disasters. Not only earthquakes, but also different types of disasters such as floods, landslides, rockfalls and sinkholes can always be faced.

*Therefore, we have very important risk reduction activities that we need to do so that such events do not turn into disasters.

APPROXIMATELY 36 THOUSAND WAS REMOVED

Noting that there are buildings with heavy and medium damage and to be demolished urgently in the region, Tatar said, “With the work it has done so far, our state has removed the wreckage of approximately 36 thousand buildings in 11 provinces that have been completely destroyed and turned into rubble. But in the next stage, these heavily damaged, moderately damaged and urgently to be demolished buildings need to be demolished quickly and their debris removed. Aftershocks occur until the process is completed. For this reason, it is extremely important for our citizens not to enter heavily damaged buildings and to stay away from them, even for the purpose of buying goods. said.

“NUMBER OF Aftershocks IS APPROXIMATELY 38 THOUSAND”

Pointing out that aftershocks may continue for a very long time after such large earthquakes, Tatar said:

*So far, around 38 thousand aftershocks have occurred. While the average number of earthquakes measured by AFAD’s earthquake department in a year is around 22 thousand, the number of aftershocks created by these earthquakes in just 3.5 months is around 38 thousand.

*This is a very large number and some of them can reach around 5 from time to time. In such cases, especially rockfall is a great risk for us.

* The death of 4 of our teachers as a result of a rockfall in Adana still remains a pain in our hearts.

* That’s why we need to be careful in places with such rockfalls, especially in residential areas, close to residential areas. AFAD has many field studies on this subject after the earthquake.

*After these works, many settlements under the risk of rockfall were evacuated. However, there are still places in the countryside that may be exposed to the risk of rockfall after these aftershocks. (AA)

Release date: 13:51, 26 May 2023