AFAD earthquake drill scenario becomes reality on February 6

 Click to read the article in Turkish

February 6 earthquakes revealed that the "drop, cover, and hold-on" earthquake drill recently conducted in Türkiye was very inadequate.

It also turned out that the AFAD earthquake drill carried out in 2019 realistically selected the center and magnitude of the earthquake, but the necessary measures were not taken.

Photo from AFAD October 2019 earthquake drill, AA

An earthquake drill was conducted in October 2019 in Türkiye in the scope of the Plan for Disaster Intervention of the country.

According to the scenario in the drill, the earthquake was centered in Pazarcık, Maraş, and with a magnitude of 7.5.

February 6 earthquakes that struck Türkiye heavily were two 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes centered in the Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of Maraş, followed by nearly 3 thousand small-to-magnitude aftershocks. 

1413 personnel, one helicopter, 271 vehicles, and one rescue dog took part in the earthquake drill in 2019 conducted directly by Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

The minister said at that time that the drill was carried out successfully. "The Ministry of Health arrived in 5 minutes. The Deputy Minister of our Environment and Urbanization Ministry arrived in 15 minutes and the other working groups arrived in 25 minutes except for three of them," he explained.