Earthquake in Gaziantep (Turkey)

What a horrible thing happened yesterday near the city of Gaziantep.
Heavy earthquake that caused almost 5000 deaths in 24 hours.
When I went to sleep the counter said 3600 and now some six hours later it has risen to almost 5000. Still thousands are missing.
Where will it end?
A tragedy of enormous magnitude.

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:sunglasses:

is this expression incorrect?

(I am not a native speaker)

It is correct. I found it humorous that you chose magnitude since it is also the unit of measurement for the severity of an earthquake. Sort of a play on words / double meaning.

Probably a joke in poor taste, I’m prone to “gallows humour” at times (especially when tired)

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It was not an intentional wordplay.

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I figured, accidental puns are the best anyway :slightly_smiling_face:

Back to the topic now.

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I watched that video and I am amazed that they seriously considered airing “news” about the possible connection between a 3.8R earthquake in Buffallo New York and an earthquake in Turkey, a whole continent away. As if thousands of people dying and tens of thousands getting injured and hundreds of thousands losing their homes in the middle of winter is not “news enough” and they had to find something local (however trivial in comparison) to keep the attention span of the viewers engaged.

What the news are not focusing on (because the dead are better clickbait) is the hundreds or even millions that cannot return to their homes due to the after-quakes or for fear of those buildings falling from the damages or cracks that where generated.

This situation can take years to rectify (in my country we had housed people that lost their houses from earthquakes in modified “conteiners”, for more than a decade - a scandal in any civilised country, but “to be expected” on this side of the world) and it is an unmitigated disaster from which a lot of those families might never recover from, financially and mentally, even if they survived physically.

On a lighter note, to noone’s surprise, in the nearby circus that is Greece we are “flying kites” as the local expression goes when people are not taking anything seriously, even though we are a seismogenic country as well.
Our Prime Minister went on TV unshaved (to project the image of “I am working sooooooo much and I am haggard from grief and overworking”, though in truth he was on another vacation this weekend :roll_eyes:) to announce that we are sending help to the area, but instead of saying that we would send the Special Group of dealing with disasters (EMAK), he announced of sending the Special Group of dealing with Terrorists (EKAM).
Despite that, thankfully, the correct unit was sent.

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Tell me he didn’t :woman_facepalming:

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There is video, unfortunately:
https://twitter.com/kafraki6/status/1622608844932149249

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I was amazed too, but let it go because the video also showed how devastating the earthquake was and what impact it has on Turkey.

It will take some time, but I am certain that the attention will shift to the time - years/decades? - it will take to recover from this disaster.

About the editors of that newsflash I have only one thing to say: never underestimate human stupidity.

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It’s getting worse and worse, if you add the seriously injured, who are not safely out of danger. :frowning: The striken area is huge, it’s hundreds of kilometers. The damages in all the countries are overwhelming, there is only so much that can be done in the short term.
I’m more afraid of the long-term impact, though, for the next 3-4 months (eg food production and shortages) because it is certain that a lot of food and other necessities were lost and will probably be hard to replenish. Not only houses, but also crops and cattle were destroyed. Also, infrastructures like water and heating, in mid-winter, with a particularly bad weather.

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A friend of mine suggested these links:

  1. TPF Turkey is a US-based foundation with many on-the-ground partners that rapidly respond to emergencies (easy to donate through US accounts):

2. AKUT is an NGO that specializes in search and rescue operations during natural disasters (donate through credit card payment option for non-Turkish accounts):


More links in this article:

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I don’t quite get it. Does it mean “Earthquake took care of the destruction, no need to send an army over”? Criticising their own government for arms dealing and warmongering in other countries? Even if so, it is still in extremely poor taste.

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Don’t search for their “joke” for the earthquake in Italy a while ago, it’s similarly in poor taste.

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Reality is in extremely poor taste.
This is probably a bait from them. If there is outrage they can print a questionaire/quiz with “pictures after the earthquake near Aleppo or the war near Aleppo”.

They know that they are hard to tell apart. For example:

Maybe for added shock value they might put into their quiz images only from wars (totally unrelated to that area) and bait their viewers even more into thinking and finally realising that a war is not like the movies.

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over 50% of buildings in Turkey - equivalent to almost 13 million buildings - were constructed in violation of regulations.

The government has provided periodic “construction amnesties” - effectively legal exemptions for the payment of a fee, for those structures built without the required safety certificates.

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