30 Second Disaster EARTH HISTORY MAGAZINEâ„¢ Presents:
INSIDE THIS EDITION Alp SARICI takes us back to the 1999 Earthquake in Izmit/ Turkey
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING MAGAZINE PRESENTS Devastating disaster affecting all of Turkey
"HARDEST DAYS OF MY LIFE" Quote by Alp Sarici
August 17, 1999
By Alp Sarici
This Story Is Dedicated To: My dear father Alp SARICI
Table Of Contents Pages: Cover page: #1 Dedication: #2 Table of Contents: #3 Historical Narrative: #46 Afterword: #7 All Notes: #810 About Author: #11 Bibliography: #12
Historical Narrative I was sleeping alone at home in summer. My wife was in Bursa to give some English training. In the middle of the night I heard some noise coming from the floor. I was living in a high story apartment on the 15th floor. All of a sudden the lights started switching on and off by itself. When I heard the noise I told myself “This must be the apocalypse and I said gee am I going to die alone and by myself.” I didn't know what to do; I had million thoughts flying through my mind. Due to hot weather I was just sleeping with my boxers so I hesitated to go down out of the building. Immediately I called my wife, I was able to reach her because it was the very beginning of the earthquake. I asked her to leave the hotel room and go down stairs and evacuate the building. Then I was also asking her where my trousers and my shirt were, I think it was just a reflex. I got dressed and then I was about to go down but I was scared to take the elevator, so I went down the stairway and made my way outside.
I had never experienced such a devastating earthquake in my life. I just went to the parking lot right under a 19story building so I was in the car opening the radio without thinking the building might collapse on my head. Me and 2 other colleagues from work living in the same compound were all trying to understand what was happening. Then the bad news started coming like how many buildings had been collapsed and what the death toll was. Slowly the deaths started rising. After that we decided not to continue staying in the parking lot. Then we drove down to the marina I had a small yacht by that time so we just went to sit down for a little bit. We had never heard of the word tsunami before. We were just staying in the boat until the next morning. Luckily nothing had gone wrong yet.
The next day at sunrise we decided to get out of the boat. After that I went to my apartment, took a shower, got dressed to go to work. Of course now I was able to contact all my family members so they were all in perfect state. When we went to the office we asked and tried to find out if our colleagues, their family and our customers were all safe.
We immediately tried to build up a volunteer group in order to help and support that area. Our company was sending help as well as my scuba diving club. By that time I was a scuba instructor and also a member of the scuba diving rescue team. So what we did was try to help search and rescue to find dead and alive bodies. Our company together with some Ngo’s, one was called Akut the other one was called Earthquake Help Association were trying to send help to the people. We were trying to find the needs of people in Golcuk and send them help; this was very hard because their needs were changing all the time. While we were in one hand trying to purchase goods and pack the goods for them in the meantime we were also trying to help. Our under water rescue team was also called by the government in order to help and research under the water to find dead bodies.
While those things were happening the roads were closed and the government said via TV not to go over there because roads were getting blocked and the government was trying to help so they told us not to make traffic. By that time unfortunately no organization was prepared for that disaster. As a result my wife was not able to make her way back to Istanbul, so she had to stay a couple of days in Bursa because all the ferries and transport was dedicated for sending help. Sadly neither my wife was able to come to Istanbul nor I was able to go to Bursa to pick her up. In between there were some rumors that there would be another earthquake therefore my family and I started going to open areas like parks and even MacDonald parking places. All of Istanbul was sleeping outside. They were the toughest days in my life.
I’m very lucky that most of my family was in Istanbul and in a perfect health. Unfortunately I had some friends in that region and after a week or so I found out they were not directly affected. Aside of the goods our company sent there, I went with some of the work colleagues went to that region and somewhere on the line we stopped to help the people and distribute help ourselves. When we went there we realized how hard it was for the people living over there and the needs were completely different than what we thought. We had some medicine and some food however we realized that what they needed were big machines and trucks to help rescue the people stuck under the debris. At that time when we were trying to break the cement blocks I saw a dead body stuck under approximately half a ton weighing cement block. His arm was hanging outside of the cement block; on his arm he had a bright silver arm watch reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. I felt horrible because I wasn’t able to help him without any big machine. Every day I went to see if he had been removed from under the building. This went on for three days because of the roads being blocked by huge amount of debris.
We know that it is a natural disaster nobody can prepare himself or herself for it. We also know that it’s not the earthquake that kills, it’s the man made buildings that do. I’m trying to live in safer places with my family to be more prepared.
Afterword On that day approximately 45,000 people have died. Nobody was prepared for the earthquake. 300,000 people became homeless. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.6. 8.5 billion dollars worth of damage has been made. People right now are preparing for the next earthquake because there is a very big earthquake excepted in 50 years.
About The Author
Alpdeniz Sarici Hernandez is a 7th Grade student in IICS. He has been brought up in a multicultural environment. He has lived in Turkey, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary. He is both Spanish and Turkish. When he is not working in his computer, he loves playing basketball, swimming, playing the piano, walking in the forest with his dog and sometimes riding a motorcross bike.
Bibliography/Citation Carayannis, GEORGE Parara. “The Earthquake and Tsunami of August 17, 1999 in the Sea of Marmara, Turkey.” 1999 Earthquake, Sept. 2016, www.drgeorgepc.com/tsunami1999turkey.html. “Deadly Earthquake Strikes Turkey.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/thisday-in-history/deadly-earthquake-strikes-turkey. “Izmit Earthquake of 1999.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia Britannica, global.britannica.com/event/izmit-earthquake-of1999. “!999.” Encyclopedia Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, global.britannica.com/event/izmit-earthquake-of1999. Reilinger, Robert. “GSA Today - 1999 Izmit, Turkey Earthquake Was No Surprise.” GSA Today - 1999 Izmit, Turkey Earthquake Was No Surprise, Stewardship, 1 Jan. 2000, www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/10/1/article/i10 52-5173-10-1-1.htm.