Over the course of more than two weeks since the first earthquake in Turkey and the second, less severe one, yesterday, Monday, and the hundreds of aftershocks that decimated the Turks and Syrians and whose frightening reverberations reached Lebanon, it can be said that the Lebanese acquired a minimum level of “seismic culture”, stemming first from their fear of their lives, and their being an abandoned people, without a state, inevitably.
As a result of the two earthquakes that struck the city of Hatay in southern Turkey yesterday, Lebanon shook, particularly in the coastal areas, and the buildings and their inhabitants shook for a few seconds, so thousands of residents rushed with their children with a sad scene to the open squares, especially in Beirut and Tripoli.
In the north, the dangers of hundreds of buildings that were already threatened with collapsing were multiplied by the earthquakes, and dozens were evacuated, amid the inability of people to carry out costly consolidation operations. After 7 pm yesterday, the exhibition squares in Tripoli were crowded with thousands of families fleeing their homes, not to mention shooting in the city’s neighborhoods, and some driving their cars at a crazy speed. The scene was no different from the city of Beirut, where families flocked, minutes after the earthquake, to Martyrs’ Square, near the Horse Racing Square, and in public parks.
Land and sea tremors
And while the Turkish Emergency and Disaster Management Department announced that two earthquakes occurred in Hatay, the first with a magnitude of 6.4 in the Devni region, and the second with a magnitude of 5.8 in the Samandag region, the National Center for Geophysics, affiliated with the National Council for Scientific Research, announced that an earthquake was recorded at seven and four minutes local time, in the evening. On Monday, a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale was located on the Turkish coast, 200 km north of Lebanon, and it was felt by the citizens.
And today, Tuesday morning, the center announced that two earthquakes occurred, the first at 4:23 a.m. local time, off the shores of southern Lebanon, 64 km from Sidon, with a strength of 4 degrees on the Richter scale, and the second at 9:30 a.m. local time off the shores of southern Lebanon. It is 70 km from Sidon, and its strength is 3.5 degrees on the Richter scale.
People panic
And apart from the scientific estimates of the movement of earthquakes and the consensus of most geologists that what happens does not exceed the natural pace after the great earthquake on the sixth of February, the echoes of the tremors in Lebanon revealed once again the level of pressures and concerns that the Lebanese live in, while they are confused about how to manage their various affairs. Practically, the Lebanese are standing handcuffed in front of a large basket of living and economic crises, then a natural factor was added to it that was embodied in the earthquake and tremors, without finding a country that stands by them and fears for their fate, even with safety guidelines.
Everything the Lebanese are doing now, as a reaction to tremors, stems from the lessons they learned from the recommendations of experts (often contradictory), and from the scenes of blood, death and rubble in Turkey and Syria. Not to mention the fear of staying in homes that did not take into account all safety conditions in building, before considering whether they are suitable for earthquake resistance. What a segment of the Lebanese are saying is that if in Turkey and its history, the earthquake showed the extent of corruption and irregularities in the construction sector and the fragility of official control in areas located on seismic plates, then how is the situation in Lebanon, where corruption destroyed the joints of the state?
At this time, experts are talking about grave mistakes committed by the Lebanese while fleeing after the earthquakes, such as standing directly under tall buildings, evacuating homes before the tremors stop, carrying heavy bags that do not help them escape, or even staying in houses that showed signs of cracks and cracks. However, this confusion is directly caused by the absence of any official effort to develop an official and unified emergency plan in the hands of the Lebanese. In addition to the absence of municipalities to take the necessary measures at the level of their local authority.
no state
Al-Modon contacted a number of architects, who unanimously agreed on the difficulty of carrying out full reinforcement operations for cracked or collapsing buildings, due to the precise procedures they need and the exorbitant costs of tens of thousands of dollars to make them earthquake-resistant. What people need in practice is a formal short-term plan that includes two levels: awareness and relief plans.
Are Lebanon’s hospitals really supported and ready for any natural disaster? As well as the question about the centers of civil defense and the Red Cross? And have the relevant government ministries circulated a clear recommendation paper on safety measures in the event of any earthquake, necessary bag supplies, or even hotlines to communicate through at any risk? Were there, for example, announced safe points, squares, and centers in various regions to resort to in the event of risks threatening public safety within residential buildings?
These legitimate and self-evident questions are asked by those who are ignorant of the true meaning of the dissolution of the entire joints of the state in a country, until the seismic culture in the Lebanese way has become very sad.
However, the repetition of the questions seems necessary to recall the enormity of what the Lebanese are experiencing, because their permanent and continuous disasters exceed the violence of nature in a fleeting and harsh moment.
