How these buildings made Turkey-Syria’s earthquake so deadly

Just read an article about a town in Turkey named Erzin - since the town council wasn't corrupted and insisted on building in compliance with the codes, there is not a single one illegal building. Few buildings have suffered minor damage, but there are no collapsed ones, nor injured or dead people. Also a brand new library in Adiyaman built by EU standards survived - and it's a full glass facade structure - not a single pane cracked. So there is a direct example that it can be done.

“But they weren’t enforced due to corruption” -the story of humanity at its finest.

"Safe housing is a human right." Wow so true! Being alive is a human right. A person's house should be the safest place for them.

As someone born and raised in Chile, it is so terrifying seeing how much destruction happens after an earthquake in some places. In our last big earthquake (2010, 8,8°) "only" 50 buildings fell and 500 people died (mostly because of the tsunami, not the earthquake itself). So honestly, I hope regulations are made everywhere in the world, so no one else suffers or dies from someone's mistakes or lack of knowledge or simply corruption. My heart goes to them

As a structural engineer, this is one of the most frustrating things you live with. These buildings are everywhere. You see death everywhere you walk. And I live in Nepal.

As a Turkish citizen, I am grateful to you for making this video. Such statements (like a major earthquake is approaching or the buildings are not resistant to earthquake) are made by important professors in our country and even by you, but they continue to be neglected. That's the main reason.

Went to Turkey last November. We stayed in an airbnb on the 4th floor. The building was.. flimsy, every step you take could be felt by another person around. Come to think of it there was a night when it felt like the whole building was shaking for like 10 minutes. Both my brother and sister in law noticed it. We thought it was because of some big lorries moving in front of the building or something. Man if the quake was a little stronger that could've been me under the rubble.

If an earthquake like this ever hits Athens we’re going to have millions of deaths. Corruption & poor construction practices are rampant here too… My condolences to our neighbors, sorry for your losses 🙏

Corruption and negligence is at the core of every problem. People usually ignore things until the inevitable happens. It's always been like this and we just never learn.

One of the worst parts of knowing about these kind of things, is that when you tell people of how actually dangerous stuff is they brush it off until something horrible actually happens.

Thank you for this video. It explains the immense level of dishonesty, corruption, greediness that took place in my country for the last 20 years. I'm from Turkey and we have been devastated for 2 weeks already and two short weeks absolutely not enough to recover from this disaster. I was working in the field in Hatay as a translator for a foreign rescue team and the stuff that I saw was absolutely terrifying. I still feel the shock, the pain, the helplessness. On the other hand, I want to extend my heartfelt greetings to all those foreign search&rescue teams that have came here to help.

That's what happened to the apartment complex in Northridge, California, on January 17, 1994 at 4:30 a.m. The building was held up by steel poles creating a parking area under the building. The poles/pipes failed during the quake causing the building to collapse the first floor on sleeping tenants, killing 16 and injuring many more. A mother gave her bed to her son who was home from college. He died. She'd slept on the floor and thereby avoided injury. Sad sad stories.

As a Turk what is said is true. I've been there since the first day of the earthquake. The biggest problem is hundreds of billions of dollars of corruption by the state.

Every country that is prone to earthquakes should have strong buildings ideally. The government should set aside some funds to help out the people who can’t afford it.

It is such a painful tragedy for the people of Turkey and Syria. Hugs, prayers and support to everyone.

The quality of this channel's videos - no matter what the topic - never ceases to amaze.

The last thing that I was taught as an engineer before graduation was that my skill and decisions could and likely would be the deciding factor on which lives would depend. The professor drove home this ideology so much that it was explicit to our passing the course. He never said anything about whether my boss would be corrupt and tell me to do it the cheapest way possible. Engineers have a duty to themselves and their fellow citizens to not compromise their integrity just because someone is cheap or greedy.

This is literally what came to my mind when I heard about the news. It's just so bizarre seeing so many buildings collapse like that. So sad to see how far corruption and greed can lead to. My deepest condolences to those families who lost their loved ones.

Yeah, pancaked collapse is such a horrible way to go. The lucky ones died quickly. In Florida there was a hotel that collapsed like these buildings. It wasn't even a earthquake that caused it. It was from poor maintenance. Corruption seems to be the same common denominator. God bless those poor souls. Such grief it's just heartbreaking. Stay Strong Turkey. 🕊️⛪❤️

Great video. Everything was explained nicely along with the accompanying graphics and video.