The immenseness of this tragedy is difficult to fathom. Thank you for posting this. I sent $ via Drs Without Borders, but it's good to have another place to donate to that can help with other necessities. Heartbreaking.

Noted - however, many deaths in earthquakes are from human built things failing/collapsing, so arguably avoidable as well.

I have never flagged a post but DC's post i just did. I find it off-topic and offensive.

Interesting.

I apologize. Sorry that I find 150,000 people died from avoidable causes offensive.

I do worry about my relatives in Turkey. I emailed them a few times the past few days, got no response so far. I related my feelings about possible never talk to my relatives again and how I will be dealing and manage my feelings. Off-topic ? maybe.

dcarch

Oh boy... Well gun violence and drugs are certainly horrific. While I have never lost anyone to gun violence I did lose a beloved niece to a drug overdose a bit over a year ago. I also live in one of the areas where opioids were marketed hard and have seen the destruction.

That said I think perhaps a thread about one tragedy does not need to be met with what abouts...

@darch I wasn’t aware that you had family in Turkey. I hope they are okay.

I had moved to CA the day before the Norhtridge earthquake. All my furniture was on a truck in LV and there was no damage to the place we were staying. Having said that, it was still soooooo scary to be woken from a sound sleep by the noise and shaking. There have been several really bad earthquakes in CA, but so far none as bad as these. What many people don’t know is that the many, many aftershocks can be just as - or even more - destructive as the first quake. Everything is ready to come down after the first. And, these areas keep have multiple strong quakes each day.

I can’t even imagine the horror these people are living thru’ having everything they know destroyed and thousand upon thousands of people killed - and with no warning. That’s the scariest part of earthquakes… little or no warning.

And, like many disasters, they are in dire need of food, water, medical care, and housing…. all at once. AND, since there is so much destruction it is harder to get what is needed to them.

It is frustrating to watch since I really can’t do much besides pray for them… and send money. God bless those who are able to actually help physically.

@sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)

Thanks for the link to the Jose Andres video. I do really admire people who figure out how to show up and help. In real immediate definite ways.

Today I spent the afternoon with my sister and mom looking at some book dummies (ie mockups) that had belonged to my grandfather. Including one by Rilke writing about poetry. I am not a very proficient poetry reader but this is lovely and seems tangentially apropos.

https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2010/10/-for-the-sake-of-a-single-poem/181150/

@kate I loved Refika’s video because she asked for help but also prayers. I am not religious but I can send my best wishes.

Let us all be kind!

agmss15, Thanks. I am hoping that they cannot respond to me because all telecommunication infra structure have been destroyed. In any case I am philosophically prepared to deal with the eventuality.

I was talking to some friends about the destruction in Ukraine how sad to those innocent people, all the deaths there are man made, totally avoidable. I wrote to the Ukraine embassy here to tell them my business would be available one day a week to help Ukraine to re-build as soon as this nightmare is over..

Chances for Turkey to find survivors are not good at all. The day before the quake, I had to remove a concrete barrier in my garden, not very big, but I estimated I did about 2,000 lbs of demolition. rocks, bricks, steel are heavier than they look. That's why only 3 survivors were found in the Florida condo collapse.

dcarch

Well, the death toll is already 35 000 and they're expecting it to possibly double. The anger in Turkey is that the government had put requirements in place for buildings but these had not been respected. Many of the buildings were recent. This is criminal and could have been avoided.

America could avoid a lot of deaths if you got rid of your ridiculous, antiquated gun laws. You can't have a handgun in Britain and we don't suffer because of that.

The government apparently pushed through an “amnesty” for non-compliant buildings, so that the contractors wouldn’t have to fix them. Now they are making a show of arresting contractors, but not the government officials who approved the buildings and the amnesty.

Absolutely criminal!

Yes, I saw a headline earlier today that Erdoğan had boasted publicly about allowing builders to skirt regulations intended to mitigate earthquake damage. Criminal indeed 😠

DCarch, I do hope your family is OK and you hear from them soon. So many people are still missing, I can't even imagine how difficult it is for family members.

Annie