The death toll in the Turkiye/Syria earthquake is now over 5,000 and climbing. It hit major cities, as well as smaller villages and rural areas. Do you know, for example, that Gaziantep, Turkiye, has over 2,000,000 residents? Do you know that the areas of northern Syria have been torn apart by the civil war there and that there were thousands of people already displaced and jobless and (in Turkiye) refugees from Syria? And that part of the area affected in Syria are “rebel” held and not under control of the Damascus? And that the temperatures drop to the 20s Fahrenheit at night, with a significant amount of snow in some places?

Earthquake thoughts:

1. 5,000 sounds like a lot. But in 2004, the earthquake in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia caused over 200,000 deaths, the 2010 Haitian earthquake caused well over 100,000, and recent earthquakes in China and Pakistan each led to over 85,000 deaths. How quickly we forget.
2. There have been over 150 recorded earthquakes rated at 6.0 or higher in the United States. The big San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was approximately the same size as yesterday’s Turkish earthquake. The 1811 New Madrid, Missouri, earthquake was more powerful. Because population of southeast Missouri was so small at the time, the casualty statistics were low.
3. I saw a map yesterday of earthquake prone areas in the United States, and, as to serious earthquakes, the areas are up and down the West Coast, in southern Missouri and, to an extent, along the South Carolina shore. At some point, it seems clear to the experts that a major earthquake in California, and most likely one in Missouri, is inevitable.
4. The Turkish earthquake was felt in Lebanon and Israel. It has long been assumed in Israel that a major earthquake is coming. How that will roll out is not clear. Israel has serious building standards to enable most of its newer buildings to withstand major quakes, but yesterday I read that there are about 600,000 residences in the country which were not constructed to withstand major earthquakes.
5. There was an earthquake that affected Washington DC in 2011. We were in Europe at the time, and there were no casualties, but some buildings were affected, including the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral. The Cathedral is just finishing up its repairs, which were quite extensive, now.
6. There was an earthquake on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2006. We were there at the time, staying at a remote house we had rented in the hills off the Kona coast, and clearly felt it. Shortly after, we left this house and went to the Mauna Kea resort on the coast, half of which was shut down because of damage, and which closed in its entirety shortly after we left.
7. There was a minor earthquake that hit St. Louis in 1968. It was on a Saturday morning and I was doing some research for an Urban Studies degree I was then pursuing at Washington University, walking through the commercial area on Woodson Road in the suburb of Overland, not far from the St. Louis Airport (I can’t remember exactly what I was looking for). All of a sudden, I though that something was wrong with me, perhaps I was having a stroke. Because as I was walking along, I saw all the storefront plate glass windows waving in and out. I felt nothing on the ground, and was sure that I was imagining what I was seeing until I saw people running from buildings out onto the street. I didn’t know, until then, that you could feel the earthquake stronger inside than if you were outside on the street.