The Istanbul provincial government announced this Saturday that more than 50,000 students from 93 schools in the city will be transferred starting next Monday to other educational centers in earthquake-proof buildings.
The move comes 13 days after two powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6, tore through southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 45,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of buildings.
Experts have warned for years that Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, could experience a devastating earthquake at any time.
“Starting Monday, our students from 93 schools and educational institutions at risk (buildings) will be transferred to earthquake-proof schools,” the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
In this way, “51,995 students and 2,765 teachers” will have to change schools and continue their education in schools built with special technology to resist earthquakes, the note specifies.
The plan foresees the demolition of 76 schools, while another 17 will be renovated and reinforced. As reported today by the Afad emergency service, quoted by the Spanish news agency Efe, the number of fatalities from the earthquakes registered so far in Turkey amounts to 40,642, but there are still tens of thousands under the rubble of the destroyed buildings, so it is expected to increase significantly.
So far, around 430,000 people have been evacuated by the Turkish authorities, according to AFAD. This catastrophe, considered the worst suffered by the region in more than a century, sparked a discussion about the lack of buildings to withstand an earthquake and sounded the alarm especially in Istanbul.
Official data indicates that in the city, on the Bosphorus Strait, there are more than a million buildings, of which, according to experts, 250,000 would collapse in the event of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, while another 91,810 buildings would suffer serious or very serious serious damage. , and more than 167,000 would be left with medium damage.
Source: TSF
