AFAD President Yunus Sezer, who participated in the earthquake drill in Eskişehir, stated that they provided world-class trainings to non-governmental organizations as well as rescue units and said, "Turkey is one of the exemplary countries in the world, especially in terms of disaster response and post-disaster recovery."
An earthquake drill was held in Eskişehir Technical University 2 September Campus with the coordination of Eskişehir Governorship AFAD Provincial Directorate. In addition to AFAD President Yunus Sezer, Eskişehir Governor Erol Ayyıldız, Combat Air Forces Commander Gen. Ziya Cemal Kadıoğlu, AFAD Eskişehir Provincial Director Recep Bayar and approximately 400 personnel, 54 non-governmental organizations, 69 vehicles, 1 helicopter and 70 AFAD volunteers participated in the exercise.
In the earthquake drill, it was announced that there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 and a depth of 12 kilometers in the Muttalip Emirler District of the Tepebaşı district, as per the scenario. After the sound of emergency sirens, all students, academicians and administrative staff at the university were evacuated from the buildings. At the Provincial AFAD center, which gathered in the gym after the earthquake, Governor Ayyıldız and AFAD President Yunus Sezer received information from the directors of the institution about the damage and the work done.
While the fire that broke out in the university building as per the drill scenario was extinguished by the firefighters, the students trapped in the building were rescued by fire trucks with ladders. After a building collapsed in the Muttalip Emirler District, 9 people were taken to the hospital by ambulance by teams that were members of AFAD as well as search and rescue associations.
In addition, Kızılay emergency tents were set up for 4 disaster victims whose houses were damaged in the earthquake on the university campus. AFAD President Yunus Sezer and Eskişehir Governor Erol Ayyıldız, who led the earthquake drill from the provincial AFAD center, watched the debris work on site with their companions.
'It is a great pleasure to see accredited teams in the field'
AFAD President Yunus Sezer stated that 23 disaster groups worked with AFAD in the Eskişehir earthquake drill and said, “There are 23 disaster groups here. All 23 disaster groups are working effectively. We are happy to see this.
Another happiness is that the accreditation system in Turkey has been making great progress in the last 3 years. We saw this in Eskişehir today as well. We have accredited search and rescue units. They are working effectively in the field together with our AFAD search and rescue units. It is a happy event for us,” he said.
'Turkey, One of the Model Countries in the World'
Stating that there are 63 search and rescue units accredited throughout Turkey, AFAD President Sezer noted that AFAD volunteers have reached 570 and said: “It is one of the exemplary systems of Europe and the world. This is due to the importance given to this issue by the Turkish people. Turkey is one of the exemplary countries in the world, especially in terms of disaster response and post-disaster recovery. We held an international exercise last week and nearly 40 countries participated. It was an exercise held with the representatives of the United Nations and the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.
Other countries want to take the capacities we have reached there as an example for themselves. We do search and rescue according to United Nations standards and Turkey is the country with the highest number of United Nations accredited unions in the world. We both accredit and train our non-governmental organizations at world standards, and we train our own associations at this level. At the same time, we mentor and train many countries from Azerbaijan to Kyrgyzstan.
Eskişehir Governor Erol Ayyıldız evaluated the earthquake drill and said: “This exercise, under the coordination of our Ankara AFAD Presidency and Eskişehir Provincial AFAD, portrayed how to act in an earthquake scenario with a magnitude of 5.2. As far as we know and see, a scenario was devised that Eskişehir could overcome an earthquake of this magnitude with its own efforts, possibilities and abilities.
Be the first to comment