Akin Sirnen & the Turkish Earthquake

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Akin Sirnen & the Turkish Earthquake

On the 17th of August 1999 in Western Turkey, also known as Kocaeli an earthquake struck at 3am. The destruction happened in poorer areas where experts say that the buildings there had broken building regulations and had been made of beach sand, which is not hard and strong enough to withstand the weight of a block of flats. The epicentre of the earthquake was at a town called Izmit in the densely populated north of Turkey, this was where the earthquake hit Turkey its hardest and caused complete devastation.

The earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, which is one of the largest earthquakes in the world. The last earthquake happened in 1754, but that was nothing compared to this one, even though that did make many buildings fall down and many fires damaged their economy. Izmit sits astride the north annotation fault so that is was obvious that an earthquake would take place some day.

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Gas mains burst setting fire to buildings and an oil refinery at Izmit. It destroyed anything in its path that was above the gas pipes. Electricity and water supplies were cut off in 8 Turkish cities, causing people to dehydrate and later when it got dark people could not see the rubble that was all over the floor. Broken sewage pipes spread diseases and many people were taken ill, hospitals couldn't cope with all the sick and injured people. At Golcuk a tidal wave swept survivors out to sea creating an even larger death toll. People were woken ...

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