bir yıl önce

AFAD: What makes it Türkiye's premier responder to disasters?

The Turkish disaster agency responsible for dealing with the aftermath of earthquakes has decades of experience in undertaking challenging rescue missions.

AA

AFAD has dispatched 80 rescue workers along with hundreds of volunteers gathered from various cities to the Kahramanmaras province, which was hit by the 7.7 magnitude quake.

AFAD, the Turkish organisation at the forefront of rescue efforts to deal with the deadly earthquake that killed hundreds and flattened buildings in the country's southern provinces on Monday morning, has been preparing to deal with large-scale natural disasters for years.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) has dispatched 80 rescue workers along with hundreds of volunteers gathered from various cities to the Kahramanmaras province, which was hit by the 7.7 magnitude quake.

The big jolter was followed by magnitude 6.6 and 6.5 strikes in the southeastern province of Gaziantep. On Monday afternoon, the region was hit by another 7.6-magnitute earthquake.

In videos shared on social media, desperate people trapped underneath the rubble were sending out appeals for rescue. “We are trapped here in the building and I can’t hear anything from my friends who are stuck here with me.”

AFAD was established in 2009 after several government departments such as Civil Defence and General Directorate for Disaster Works were merged together to enhance response to natural disasters.

The organisation was created after Türkiye was hit by devastating back-to-back earthquakes in 1999.

On November 12, 1999, Duzce was rocked by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that lasted 30 seconds, killing 710 people and injuring 2,679.

The Duzce earthquake came after the August 17, 1999 earthquake which hit Türkiye's northwestern city of Izmit and killed 18,373 people and injured 23,781 with its 7.6 magnitude, according to official figures from the AFAD.

Türkiye is located in a geographical region, which overlays faultlines prone to tectonic shifts and jolts, which can damage infrastructure.

Since 1990, Türkiye has witnessed around a dozen small and big earth shakers - it is quite often to see deprem, which means earthquake, trending on Turkish social media.

More than two-thirds of the 5,900 staff and volunteers of AFAD are based in provinces across Türkiye’s land mass to ensure a timely response.

AFAD also launched a volunteer programme to enroll civilians to help in times of any major disaster and received thousands of applications.

In November last year, AFAD organised a nation-wide drill to prepare people for an earthquake. Residents received audible alerts and SMS notifications both in Turkish and English to head out of the buildings.

Across major cities, AFAD has put up sign poles along roads, marking certain areas as meeting points during evacuation.

AFAD’s expertise and efforts came under the international spotlight during the rescue operations it carried out following the powerful earthquake in Izmir in which 117 people were killed.

Rescue workers dug holes in a building to reach a 3-year-old girl who was kept alive with IV drips. She was pulled out after 91 hours of relentless work. Media dubbed it a “miracle”.

Monday's earthquake, which caused damage in neighhouring Syria and sent panicked residents out on the streets in Lebanon, has struck at a time when the region is gripped in an intense coldwave.

It’s a race against time for rescue workers as people trapped under the rubble need immediate assistance. Fortunately, AFAD had gained experience over the years to work in difficult conditions in collaboration with other relief agencies.