The mood is high behind the thin wall that separates me and the neighbour. This evening there are clearly festive people camping in the apartment next door. Other times it happens that I hear children crying or loud Arabic conversations. And right as it is, I meet women in the full-covering niqab in the lift. The traffic of changing people is something new after the earthquake in southeast Turkey earlier this year. In fact, the caretaker, his wife and I are among the last permanent residents of the block in Istanbul, but not very much anymore. Others moved after the building inspectors came to check whether the building would withstand a strong earthquake. What the inspectors found was a little curious, but most of all alarming. So now the Turks don’t think it’s safe enough to live here anymore, and rent out to tourists on Airbnb. POST: The mailboxes are filled up when the owners have moved. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news The bed swayed Here in Istanbul, people are waiting for the big earthquake. No one knows when it will occur; whether it will happen tomorrow, next year or ten years from now. But the geologists believe it is likely that it will affect the city of over 19 million inhabitants by 2030, and that is not long after all. Occasionally I feel the ground shaking faintly under my feet. Istanbul is located in an active earthquake zone. One night I woke up to the bed swaying from side to side. It was quite uncomfortable. I don’t think I was scared, but my and others’ perception of what an earthquake means has changed dramatically after the disaster in February, where at least 55,000 people were crushed under their houses and homes. 55,000 is only the official figure, by the way. Relatives believe far more people were killed, because no one has an overview of how many are still missing. What I saw when I went into the destroyed cities the morning after the earthquake was simply terrifying. Some buildings had just collapsed, and you could see beds and curtains between the collapsed floors. Others were left as mere skeletons where walls and roofs had collapsed. Many simply tipped over and smashed on the ground. Everywhere there was despair, death and destruction. It has made Turks afraid. Earthquake: The sight that greeted me in February in towns like Maras was terrifying, where blocks of flats were razed to the ground. Photo: news Blokka stood up When I returned to Istanbul after seeing the massive destruction during the earthquake, I noticed things I had never focused on before. The eye was fixed on the shop premises which, in the event of an earthquake, could hardly bear the weight of the flats above. On bay windows that made buildings lean over the sidewalks and balconies that were built in as part of the living room. Like in my block. How would gravity be affected by an earthquake? BALCONY: In my block, almost all the balconies are built into the living room. Photo: news Many blocks in Istanbul have also illegally added many floors. There are over 1 million buildings in Istanbul. The vast majority are from the time before new regulations were introduced that required them to withstand earthquakes. The rules were introduced after a powerful earthquake in the town of Ismit outside Istanbul in 1999. Until then, the centuries-old knowledge that this historic city is regularly hit by earthquakes had been displaced in favor of simpler construction and quick money. The powerful earthquake earlier this year was another wake-up call and triggered an avalanche of building inspections. After two months they came to my block and it turned out to tick all the boxes of how not to do it. INSPECTION: The inspectors check and measure the bearing in each and every apartment. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news I made a TV story about it in May. The inspectors started in the basement and quickly discovered a problem. The reinforcing steel in the concrete was rusty. They painstakingly took X-rays of all the supporting columns, and were able to quickly determine that there was too little and too weak support, which increases the risk of the floors collapsing. They still made the most startling discovery in the attic. In the concrete they found shells from the beach, and all the steel in the entire roof was rusted. In addition, the roof was insulated with newspaper. The roof is insulated with newspaper. Inside the concrete there were beach shells. The X-rays show that the support columns are not strong enough. It was nothing short of curious, but the inspectors said they saw a lot of it around town. They believed it was not unusual in the past to take some shortcuts by using sand from the beach. It was just a shame that they had forgotten to wash out the salt first so that the steel rusted. Quarrels and noise It was then that the neighbors moved, and I was asked about the same thing. I replied that there was no point in moving until I found an apartment that could withstand an earthquake. The others just wanted to leave as quickly as possible, I learned. FLYTTEKRAN: Many people moved out of the block this summer. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news I thought maybe they would get an order from the authorities to improve the building. But as I have been told, the building is not illegal according to the old rules that applied at the time it was erected. Thus, it is up to the owners to figure out what to do. And they argue so busta flies. A few weeks after the report was ready, I met one of the neighbors over a cup of tea. Or ex-neighbour to be correct. Nor does she live in the block. At the time, I myself was unsure whether I should rent something temporarily until the apartment was completely rehabilitated, or whether I should move. It was quite clear to me after this conversation what I should do. – Everyone just argues, she said. There was full drama in the neighborhood. Everyone agreed that something had to be done, but the agreement stopped there. Some wanted to demolish the building, while others wanted to strengthen it. But they had different opinions about how it should be financed. And at the same time they blamed each other. One of the neighbors just lied, I heard. She believed that if they demolished and rebuilt, they would have to drop the top two floors because it is forbidden to have more than four floors. In that case, my apartment was smoking. A CAT FOLLOWING THE VIEW: If the block is to be replaced with a new one, it must not be higher than four floors, and this view is on the 5th. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news In addition, she had made a studio downstairs, and that complicated the whole thing . It was not in accordance with the floor plans in the municipality. She had promised to do something about it, but is just lying, repeated my neighbor in full anger. Without a clear order from the municipality to rehabilitate the building, they remain at rest even half a year later. In A message I received from one of the neighbors, they still haven’t decided what to do, but she hopes they will meet soon to talk about it. Rented out on Airbnb She has invited me for tea the next time she comes, but then I won’t be here in the block anymore. Boxes of glassware, shoes and books are ready by the door. In the big red suitcase, I have space for winter jackets, duvets and the PC screen, while the other suitcases are stuffed full of clothes, towels and bed linen. Next week, the road continues to another apartment, which has passed the earthquake test, at least on paper. Who would have thought I would move so quickly when I signed a three-year lease last June. I didn’t even manage to remove the door sign that says “Sidsel Wold”. The janitor also has to leave, by the way, because he will be retired. And guess what? Soon my apartment will also be ready for renting on Airbnb. They can make good money from ignorant tourists, because it can take a long time for the neighbors to agree on what to do with the building that will not withstand a strong earthquake.
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The Turks don’t think it’s safe to live here – rent out on Airbnb – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
