Home is supposed to be a refuge. But when an earthquake strikes, it can become lethal. It is not the quake that kills but the house itself; collapsing structures, falling floors, crumbling walls.
The powerful earthquakes that shook south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 reduced entire streets and city blocks to rubble. These were modern blocks built, like almost all our buildings today, of concrete reinforced with steel, just like it says in the architectural textbooks. How could they have failed so badly?
