One year since İzmir earthquake

İZMİR

Authorities are preparing to deliver new homes in November that are being built for the victims of a devastating earthquake which hit İzmir, the country’s third largest city by population, on Oct. 30, 2020. 

Around two dozen buildings collapsed, 114 people were killed and more than 1,000 others were injured in the magnitude 6.6 earthquake.  Some 107 people were rescued alive from the rubble. 

According to the Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Ministry, inspections conducted in the wake of the disaster revealed that nearly 630 buildings were heavily damaged in the tremor while the quake caused milder damage to 605 building and nearly 8,000 structures suffered little damage. It even caused a small tsunami in the Seferihisar district, flooding the streets of the town. 

A total of 29 suspects, including contractors, civil engineers, architects and supervisors, stand trial in five different lawsuits. They are accused of negligence and held responsible for the collapse of five buildings. The suspects are being tried for involuntary manslaughter. 

Nearly 400 heavily damaged buildings have been demolished by authorities. 

Bayraklı and Bornova were the districts most affected. Authorities identified seven sites in Bayraklı to build new homes for the earthquake victims and construction works are about to be completed.

“Work is currently underway for 1,701 units and the construction of most of them will be completed soon and in November we will start to deliver those houses to their occupants,” said Ömer Albayrak, the head of the provincial

directorate of environment, urbanization and climate change. 
Those are two, three and four-bedroom apartments, he added. 

Turkey is among the world’s most seismically active zones and has suffered several devastating earthquakes, including a magnitude-7.6 tremor in Marmara in 1999.