Earthquake Damage in Turkiye Estimated to Exceed $34Bln

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The two recent massive earthquakes in Turkiye caused around $34.2 billion in direct damages, and the costs of reconstruction could potentially be twice as large, the World Bank said in a new assessment on Monday.

"The two very large earthquakes of February 6 caused an estimated $34.2 billion in direct physical damages in Turkiye, the equivalent of 4% of the country’s 2021 GDP," the World Bank said in a statement announcing the release of its rapid damage assessment report.

Ongoing aftershocks will likely cause more damages over time and increase the total costs of recovery and reconstructions, the World Bank added.

"The report also acknowledges that recovery and reconstruction costs will be much larger, potentially twice as large, and that GDP losses associated to economic disruptions will also add to the cost of the earthquakes," the statement said.

The report estimates that around 1.25 million people have been made homeless due to building collapses or damages. Most of the damages, or around 81%, occurred in the provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Gaziantep, Malatya and Adiyaman, which together are home to around 7.4% of Turkiye's population, or 6.45 million people, the World Bank said.

On February 6, devastating magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes hit the province of Kahramanmaras in southeast Turkiye, killing over 44,000 people and destroying thousands of buildings. The initial underground shocks were followed by hundreds of aftershocks and were felt in 11 provinces of the country as well as in the neighboring countries, with Syria the most affected.