The earthquake that struck Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 raised fear among the residents of old buildings in Lebanon, after the earthquake’s frequencies reached major cities in the country, such as the capital, Beirut and Tripoli, where cracks filled the walls and ceilings of many buildings.
On Monday, the Lebanese Minister of Interior in the caretaker government, Bassam al-Mawlawi, was assigned by the Lebanese government presidency to communicate with municipalities in various Lebanese regions in order to formally survey the cracked buildings.
The step seeks to urge the municipalities to provide the ministry with files of the damaged buildings as a result of the earthquake that occurred in Turkey and Syria, and the earthquakes that occurred in Lebanon on the same day of the earthquake.
Yahya Temsah, advisor to the Engineers Syndicate for scientific affairs and a specialist in studying buildings and facilities to resist earthquakes, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia, “We have received many reports from the Engineers Syndicate about buildings in which some cracks appeared.”
“These cracks are not dangerous for the residents of the buildings, but they are an indication that these buildings are at risk of collapsing in the event of an earthquake similar to the one in Turkey,” he added.
“The proportion of buildings that are not resistant to earthquakes is very high, exceeding 80 percent of the buildings currently in Lebanon,” Temsah added.
He continued, “It can be said that the percentage of earthquake-resistant buildings in Lebanon is very low, noting that the public safety decrees issued in 2013 obligated the implementation of the study of buildings to resist earthquakes.”
What about the vicinity of the port, which was subjected to a strong explosion?
A crocodile touched the vicinity of the Beirut port buildings, which were hit by the August 4th explosion, and indicated the following:
• We did not receive any information about the impact of the earthquake on the buildings in the vicinity of Beirut Port, noting that these buildings are old and were built of sandstone; It is one of the weakest types of earthquake-resistant buildings.
• These buildings no longer pose a threat to their occupants because they have been renovated and reinforced with reinforced concrete.
Meanwhile, a member of the Tripoli municipality and head of its Heritage Buildings Committee, Khaled Tadmuri, told Sky News Arabia, “We were on the verge of a major disaster if we had an earthquake of similar strength to what happened in Turkey and northern Syria.”
He added, “8 years ago, after the fall of one of the old buildings in the Ashrafieh area, east of Beirut, some Tripoli residents submitted requests to the municipality to conduct an inspection of their cracked homes, and since that time we have been preparing statistics.”
Palmyra summarized the scene in northern Lebanon as follows:
• The city of Tripoli has been neglected for decades and has not witnessed any rehabilitation or consolidation process for its buildings, which were severely damaged as a result of the civil war in 1975 and its aftermath, in addition to the irregularities in the construction that distorted it and the natural disasters that it experienced.
• The city did not receive its share of the state’s attention even after the end of the civil war.
• Statistics indicate that there are 400 buildings threatened with collapse, of which 65 are in a state of extreme danger.
• Our expectations in the city’s municipality are that the buildings exceed 400, especially if we take into account Tripoli and its environs, bringing the total number to 1,500 buildings.
• There is a catastrophe that could happen if an earthquake occurred in Tripoli, even with a lesser intensity than the earthquake in Turkey.
• The danger lies in the large residential complexes in the old neighborhoods in the center of Tripoli.
The government is the primary sponsor
Tadmury said that the High Relief Commission is the only entity authorized by the Lebanese government that can finance the support, and he continued:
• If we add the municipalities of Beddawi and the port of Tripoli, the number will reach perhaps 2,000 cracked buildings.
• According to what was announced by the Mayor of Tripoli, about 300 additional complaints were received by the municipality on the total number of 400 damaged buildings in the city, bringing the number of complaints to 700.
• It is likely that the number is much higher because some people do not report that their homes have been damaged for fear of warning the municipality to evict them.
the solution?
Palmyra demanded that the official authorities fulfill their duty towards these buildings, which should have been supported at the expense of the state after the end of the civil war.
The engineer, Tadmury, said that the earthquake hit one of the ancient bridges, as cracks appeared in its body, which stopped traffic on it, and the Ministry of Works recently pledged to restore it.
Tadmuri pointed to cracks in the upper archaeological vaults of the Khan al-Sabun building in the old city center of Tripoli, and its restoration work has not yet begun.
He stressed the need to inspect archaeological monuments and their surroundings, including residential buildings in the inner alleys.
The head of the High Relief Commission, Major General Muhammad Khair, revealed to Sky News Arabia that the state will work to secure shelter for the residents of 18 buildings at its expense in order to restore them.
“These buildings are spread over most areas of the city of Tripoli, in the north of the country,” Khair said.
Khair confirmed that “the buildings in the city were subjected to cracks as a result of the earthquake, which is also a result of natural factors and the lack of quality of the buildings since their construction.”