How To Cope With An Earthquake

My name is Maja Hofmann, I am from Germany and a 3rd year psychology student from Maastricht University in Netherlands. The night before I flew to Istanbul to start my exchange semester I found out that Turkey runs 3rd on the world rank for earthquake casualties and that Istanbul lies on the North Anatolian Fault line: everyone who paid attention in geography classes will now know that this may cause earthquakes. I flew to Istanbul being pretty anxious about possible earthquakes as the news was mentioning it and trying to predict an upcoming earthquake and its power within the next 30 years. I think to have actually experienced an earthquake was the best thing that could have happened to me: I saw the reactions and finally knew how to behave and be calm in future.

When the earthquake occurred I was on campus at the post office with my mentor Umut. It was very lucky not being alone once the earth started. I was anxious and don’t know how to cope with the situation at all. I think the most difficult thing to understand is that earthquakes are unpredictable and more importantly nothing a human being can take control of. Once you wrap your head around this and understand it you will see that it doesn’t make any sense to panic. No matter how much you panic, you will not be able to control it. They use fancy words to make it worth reading and these fancy words are the ones that make people anxious. Also, it doesn’t matter how many articles you read and how much of an expert you become on the matter you will still not be able to predict the next earthquake. Rather focus on the locals - this helped me the most. After leaving the building anxiously I had many conversations with the mentors and other local students and realized that they were all quite at ease, which calmed me automatically. Why freak out when even the locals are calm and not worried? They should know best as they are the ones living with it. After walking around in Cihangir in the afternoon of the events I saw men having their hair cut - would they be relaxed and having their haircut if they thought an actual disaster is ought to happen soon? I doubt it.

For the really anxious ones: prepare a survival bag and learn the basic behavioral tips (you can find lots online, or just ask the mentors).

Remember: you cannot change anything about it and the likelihood is very little considering that one is living in Istanbul for a short period, so stay calm and enjoy your stay to the fullest!! You don’t want to be going back home and not having lived the full experience of Istanbul because of earthquake anxiety (without one happening).