Thousands of İstanbulites request earthquake inspection after Maraş quakes, says official

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The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) has received 76,000 applications for building inspections for an earthquake, an official said yesterday (February 23).

Since the powerful Maraş earthquakes on February 6, there has been a significant increase in the number of applications, said Özlem Tut, who heads the municipality's earthquake risk management department.

Speaking to reporters after building inspections in the Bakırköy district, Tut said the municipality had been conducting such inspections for three years, adding, "Within this time, we have visited 107,000 buildings and requested permission for an inspection, but only 29,000 buildings had granted permission."

However, since the double earthquake, the number of applications rose to 76,000, she noted.

The Maraş earthquakes, which claimed over 42,000 lives in 11 provinces, revived the fears of an anticipated powerful earthquake in İstanbul. Most earthquake scientists agree that an earthquake with a magnitude over 7.0 in the city is imminent.

According to 2021 figures from the IMM, there were 1.16 million buildings in İstanbul, and at least 200,000 of them would be destroyed or severely damaged in case of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. Such an earthquake would affect three million people in the metropolis of 15.4 million.

A recent poll released this week by the SONAR company showed that only 11 percent of the residents of the city inspected their buildings for earthquake resilience even though 60 percent think their buildings are not earthquake-proof. Only 33.8 of the respondents said, "I trust the building I live in."

Reconstruction aid

Explaining how the municipality inspects buildings, Rahmi Hızır, an urbanization official with the municipality, said they had developed a method called "Hera 2019" in cooperation with the İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ).

After counting the number of iron rods with the help of X-ray devices, they took a piece of concrete and measured the corrosion of the rods and the stiffness of the concrete, he said.

"Then we will analyze all the data we collected from this building and determine its safety. Here, we have five categories — A, B, C, D, and E. D and E are high-risk categories.

"As per law no. 6306, we recommend a comprehensive analysis of the buildings in the D and C categories. If those analyses also show the buildings are risky, they need to be strengthened or renewed."

For those whose buildings are to be demolished, the municipality provides monthly rent assistance of 4,500 lira (238 US dollars), noted the official. The average rent price in İstanbul was over 10,000 lira at the end of 2022, according to Endeksa, a real estate portal. (AEK/VK)