Almost 120,000 buildings collapsed or in need of demolition

At least 118,000 buildings were either collapsed, in urgent need of demolition, or severely damaged across 10 provinces of Turkey that was rocked by two massive earthquakes on Feb.6, Turkish Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum said.

Emphasizing that the examination of 927,000 buildings in the earthquake zone were completed, Kurum said they will build new housings on solid ground, according to the local needs.

“The new houses to be built in the earthquake zone will not exceed three or four floors,” he said in a presser in Gaziantep on late Sunday.

“We will carry out the biggest disaster housing construction campaign in the history of the Republic, and we will give our citizens the keys to their safe homes,” Kurum said.

#Canlı: Çevre, Şehircilik ve İklim Değişikliği Bakanı Kurum, Gaziantep AFAD İl Müdürlüğünde gerçekleştirilen koordinasyon toplantısının ardından açıklamalarda bulunuyor https://t.co/CXtMLvicsc

— AA Canlı (@AACanli) February 19, 2023

The devastating tremors that claimed more than 41,000 lives in Turkey’s southeast so far, have also left hundreds of thousands of people without a roof on top in severe winter conditions.