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Reflections on the Turkish-Syrian Earthquakes of 6th February 2023: Building Collapse and its Consequences

Emergency Planning

Most of them are highly vulnerable to seismic forces. How much simpler to attribute it all to anonymous forces within the ground! It was notable that, in many buildings that pancaked in Turkey and Syria, the collapses left almost no voids at all, thanks to the complete fragmentation of the entire structure. Ecemis, S.Z.

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The 2019 Global Assessment Report (GAR)

Emergency Planning

It could be argued that political decision making is the greatest barrier of all to successful disaster risk reduction. Unofficial voices have suggested that the 'cure to damage ratio' for natural hazards is 1:43. Notably, the GAR has finally come around to the view that we all bear the burden of reducing disaster risk.

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Haiti: has there been progress in disaster reduction since the last big earthquake?

Emergency Planning

As bodies piled up on street corners and in courtyards there was no time to count them all. A changing situation The eminent anthropologist Anthony Oliver-Smith argued [vi] that in Haiti colonialism has left an enduring legacy of vulnerability to disasters. Haiti has long had a shortage of all three. Krimgold (eds) 2015.