80% of damage assessment completed in Türkiye’s quake zone, says environment minister

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) – Authorities have completed 80% of damage assessment in the earthquake zone in southern Türkiye after the powerful Feb. 6 tremors, the country’s environment minister said on Thursday.

“The rest will be completed quickly in the coming days,” Murat Kurum, environment, urbanization and climate change minister, told Anadolu’s Editors’ Desk in the quake-hit Adiyaman province.

A total of 7,300 personnel are working to evaluate the damage caused by the twin quakes which jolted more than a dozen provinces, he said.

Kurum also said destruction or damage was reported in around 164,000 buildings and 518,000 individual units.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, also shook Gaziantep, Hatay, Adiyaman, Malatya, Kilis, Adana, Diyarbakir, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig. Some 13.5 million people were affected by the quakes.

Most of the destroyed buildings were built before 1999, Kurum said, adding no inspection was carried out in these buildings.

He also showed a detailed map of the fault line affecting the areas in Adiyaman, saying authorities “will examine ground quality for soil-related liquefaction” to understand the massive destruction in the city center.

More than 43,000 people have been killed in the deadly earthquakes in Türkiye, according to the country’s disaster management agency AFAD.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Türkiye will begin constructing more than 200,000 homes as early as March in areas devastated by the quakes and complete the process within a year.

*Anna Cecilia Canatan contributed to the story in Ankara.