Sunday, October 23, 2011

Turkeys Earthquake-post #3

Turkeys Earthquake
As soon as I walked into my house my cousin tells me in a frantic manner that there had been an earthquake in turkey an hour ago. I was stunned for a second after he had told me but I continued on with my journey. Hearing about a natural disaster has become almost a daily thing to me recently as with others. But still I thought for a moment how the constant occurrence of disasters is unusual in many ways, and makes me fear the future.
The earthquake was a magnitude of 7.2 and struck eastern Turkey, with over 100 people reportedly killed so far as with tons of crumpled buildings. Official rescuers are expecting the death toll to rise as they shuffle through the rubble. Veysel Keser, the mayor of the district of Celebibag, states that “People are in agony. We can hear their screams for help.” The earthquakes epicenter was underneath Ercis, a earthen city with a population of 75000 which is known as a earthquake-prone zone. Another city that also took substantial damage was the city of Van that has a bustling population. The local authority believes that over 1,000 people have died due to a substantial amount of buildings collapsing, which is the main issue of the aftermath of the quake, and more are believed to break down in the aftershocks. A lot of buildings are going to need repairs which are going to be costly for Turkey.
Other countries around Turkey, such as Armenia, and Iran have also felt the quake in its cities. But no or no substantial damage was done in these regions.
Local Officials have advised that the residents should stay away from any sort of infrastructure to be safe from any threat of building collapse. Residents that were near the epicenter lit campfires prepared to spend the night outdoors away from any buildings. While some stayed in disaster relief centers, while some went to stay with relatives in nearby villages. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured the residents that assistance will be given to them. “We won’t leave anyone to fend for themselves in the cold of winter,” he said. After the quake many inmates also escaped when the tremor destroyed a prison, but some would later return.
As soon as the Earth Quake occurred, many nations around the world sent calls to the government of Turkey to offer assistance where it was needed. Nations such as United States, Israel, and Greece. Even though of the bad past conflicts between Turkey and Greece over the island of Cyprus, Greece still offered it aid. But in Israel case, even though Israel had raided and killed 9 Turkish nationals, it offered help to Israel when it was struck with a wildfire disaster. So in return Israel wants to help Turkey out with this earthquake. But so far Turkey has declined to accept any aid from Israel. Also disaster relief organizations such as the Red cross and its counter the Red crescent, which I never knew existed until now had also given their assistance to Turkey. President Obama said in a speech that “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time”
Turkey lies in one of the worlds most dangerous and most active seismic zones and is crossed by many fault lines.


3 comments:

  1. The way you organized your article was very well done. Although I noticed especially in your first paragraph that you had a few run on sentences...
    Your use of first person narration supplements your writing. By giving a first hand experience to what the article will be about, you automatically have more credibility in your statements. But you should watch which quotes you use, for example, "People are in agony. We can hear their screams for help." This grabs the reader's emotion and makes them sympathize for the people of TUrkey. Although we should probably feel bad for them, in this form of writing, it's bias.

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  2. Your article has a good flow and is organized well. I think in your first few sentences you should re-arrange or replace them because they sound kind of weird, like where you said i continued on with my journey. That can make people become confused with what you are talking about they can actually think your on a journey. I also think in order to supplement your writing you should have a photo of the destruction caused by the earthquake because that visual will help alot since we aren't used to seeing 7.2 magnitude earthquakes.

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  3. Your article is informative and well-organized. Every transition uses correct and help your audience reading smoothly. On the other hand, I agree with Khan's comment. The first sentence is a little bit unclear and vogue for me. You can try to re-write this sentence. I think you can also provide some information about News reports. Moreover, pictures can also help your audience know how terrible was this earthquake.

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