The loss of life and the destruction from the recent earthquake in Turkey is beyond tragic. There are no words really. I am deeply saddened and have a deep, deep sorrow for its victims. There have been devastating earthquakes throughout the region’s history, but this never gets any easier.
In modern times, where we have the technology to limit the destruction and death with better construction and retrofitting reinforcement, tragic morphs to criminal when we realize how little was done to prepare for this earthquake since the last time when in 1999 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Kocaeli Province of Turkey, killing between 17,127–18,373. It happened again when the Van earthquakes struck in eastern Turkey in 2011. These disasters prompted changes in Turkey’s building codes that contractors, inspectors, and politicians have nearly completely ignored - for money - despite pleas to change.
This is not just a natural disaster. This is wholesale slaughter, fueled by greed.
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