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TURKEY/SYRIAN EARTHQUAKE CRISIS
Imagine Being Woken By the Earth Moving
It’s a well-known joke between adults that a climactic experience is based on the [hypothetical] earth moving.
So, can you imagine being woken up to the earth moving, literally and physically? When an earthquake strikes, this is precisely what happens — and it did happen two days ago on the Turkish and Syrian border.
Their world rattled and shook beyond comprehension in the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t incredible or remotely exciting. The shaking was destructive and deathly.
Ten minutes after the event, news travelled to major media outlets. I follow three: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Stuff, the outlet that feeds New Zealand news.
I had a horrible feeling when I saw the number appear in the first report from the BBC:
Magnitude 7.8.
That’s a big quake, capable of crumbling concrete infrastructures and burying anyone or anything underneath.
I’m not a scientist or geological expert, but knowing the affected area’s history of quakes, it doesn’t take a scientist to know this one was going to be a shocker in terms of the human toll.
