Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum stated that 10 buildings in 307 provinces affected by the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes were examined, and 763 thousand 41 of them were determined to be destroyed, immediately to be demolished or severely damaged.
Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum, in a statement at the Earthquake Coordination Center established in Gaziantep AFAD, stated that they had just received news from Kahramanmaraş that made the whole of Turkey happy, that a person was taken alive and taken under treatment. He said that the rescue teams will continue to work in the wrecks with the same motivation.
The institution noted that the loss of life in Gaziantep has reached 3 for the time being, and the number of citizens rescued from the rubble by search and rescue efforts is 729.
Explaining that search and rescue teams, security forces and non-governmental organizations are working in Gaziantep under the coordination of AFAD, the Authority said, “Currently, we are carrying out search and rescue activities in 18 of our wrecks. Search and rescue work has been completed in 1306 wrecks.” he said.
Stating that they are working with 23 thousand personnel in the city to meet all the needs of the citizens, especially shelter and food, the Institution emphasized that the citizens who were rescued from the rubble in Gaziantep after 159 and 170 hours were a great morale for everyone.
Underlining that a person who was pulled alive from the wreckage increased the motivation of the search and rescue teams many times, the Institution said, “We just watched the rescue of our 185-year-old Ayça girl alive at the 10th hour in Kahramanmaraş. Rest assured, everyone here was happy as if they were their relatives under the rubble. Hopefully, we will continue to work with the same motivation in all our wrecks.” used the phrases.
Minister Kurum said that they continue to work to meet the shelter needs of all citizens affected by the earthquake, and that they will continue to be with the citizens with all material and moral assistance, especially goods, moving and rental aid, under the coordination of AFAD.
“We are planning to supply natural gas to the entire province until Friday”
Explaining that they established container cities in Islahiye and Nurdağı district centers, the Institution said, “Today, the number of container cities has reached 1626. We receive requests from our citizens; We continue to establish our container cities according to their demands by providing containers for those who want containers, or if they do not want to receive rental assistance, by providing rental assistance. We provide temporary accommodation services to our 130 thousand citizens in the center and in our districts. Together with our metropolitan, district municipalities and Red Crescent, we are in an effort to meet all the needs of our citizens.” said.
Providing information about the infrastructure works that were interrupted in Gaziantep after the earthquakes, the Minister Kurum said:
“We repaired most of the electricity and water damage in our villages. We have 4 villages left. We will give it to them tomorrow. As of now, we supply our electricity to 68 villages in İslahiye and 35 villages in Nurdağı. I stated that we started to give our waters in the center. Therefore, we have also repaired most of the infrastructure-related damage. We started to supply natural gas throughout Gaziantep. As of now, we have supplied our natural gas to 25 percent of the local area. Our priority is our hospitals, areas where our citizens will meet their social needs. We started to give it to our mosques, hospitals, schools, public institution buildings and then to residences. Currently, natural gas has been supplied to 21 thousand independent sections in Gaziantep. We plan to deliver natural gas to the entire province until Friday.”
Damage assessment studies
Stating that they are continuing the damage assessment studies in 10 provinces affected by the earthquake with 6 thousand 500 personnel, the Institution said, “So far, we have examined 10 thousand 307 buildings, that is, 763 million 1 thousand 586 houses and workplaces, in 901 provinces. We have determined that 41 thousand 791 buildings are destroyed, to be demolished immediately and heavily damaged. This corresponds to approximately 190 thousand 172 residences and workplaces, in other words, our 190 thousand residences and workplaces were destroyed and severely damaged.” said.
Stating that they have determined that approximately 10 thousand 777 residences and workplaces in 24 thousand 700 buildings throughout Gaziantep are heavily damaged and destroyed, the Institution said that the determinations made are announced on a daily basis via e-Government and that citizens can see the damage assessments.
Stating that citizens can enter buildings with little damage and no damage if damage assessments have been made, the Authority said:
“It is not possible to enter these houses without strengthening the moderately damaged houses. Our heavily damaged buildings will already be demolished. We would like to make these warnings once again to our citizens that they should not buy items from their homes without the coordination of AFAD. Under the coordination of AFAD, we will provide information on whether or not goods can be taken from the buildings by meeting with the transportation companies related to the whole city by our Governor's Office, and we will allow the purchase of goods within the framework of this information. If there are citizens who want to move, if they apply to our contact points, we will clearly inform the situation about whether or not they can take goods from their buildings. Aftershocks still continue. For this reason, our citizens should definitely not enter their buildings without damage assessment. We plan to complete most of the damage assessments in Gaziantep within 3 days, and the damage assessments in Turkey within a week, I hope.”
“We will build and deliver new, solid and secure housing to our citizens”
Pointing out that the field studies on the areas where disaster housing will be built continue in 10 provinces, the Minister Kurum said, “We continue our work by taking into account the needs of the city, both for the ground survey and the determination of the new places to be built. At the same time, I hope we will start construction activities in all our provinces by the end of the month, and as we promised, we will carry out the housing mobilization, which is the biggest disaster transformation in the history of the Republic, and we will carry out these works with the same understanding as we built and delivered the previous houses, and stood by our citizens in disasters. We will build and deliver solid, secure houses. Just as we shared in their sadness today, I hope we will witness their happiness together that day." used the phrases.
Noting that most of the destroyed buildings were structures built before 1999, the institution added that they saw that the majority of the buildings were destroyed due to soil liquefaction and lack of engineering services.
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