Earthquake zone

We have vaguely been noting various slightly odd things but without twigging what has happened.
Finally people explain that they were majorly affected by the huge Turkey/Syria 7.8 Earthquake of Feb 2023. Now we start to understand why there are so many brand new roofs, concrete mixer trucks and cranes, refugee tents in peoples gardens, and mobile home encampments. At present we have been cycling through this for 4 days with no respite.

In the towns and lower villages, there are piles of rubble, houses that are rebuilt but unpainted and with new windows, labels not yet removed. Other houses with huge cracks. In the higher mountain villages, progress is slower and in some villages there are still mainly tents and tiny mobile homes.

It looks like one of the Turkish recovery strategies is simply to start again. Between 2 mountain villages, 3 new estates of 50 plus bungalows in various states of completion. Outside the city, new apartment suburbs. They look smart, but we note that insulation looks minimal. We hope they are earthquake proof and wonder how the locals feel about their new homes.
Then there is the landscape. We have been travelling through land that is eroding fast. There seem to be many fresh rock falls and rock avalanches and many places with a lot of recent subsidence. Its hard to know just how much is from the earthquake… perhaps most.Read more