With the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes that caused tens of thousands of casualties, we have seen that we are not yet prepared enough for large-scale earthquakes. In this process, many people had inconsistent thoughts such as “this destruction was inevitable no matter what we did”. However, we have shown you before that these are not earthquakes that have arisen from scratch, but that they are almost shouting.
Let’s put aside the issue of we could/couldn’t have been prepared for now. When we heal the wounds of this earthquake, can we be sure that we will inevitably be prepared for an ‘coming’ earthquake, even years from now? No way. This is exactly why we have things to take as an example from the Lisbon earthquake that took place centuries ago.
Briefly, what was this Lisbon earthquake?
The great Lisbon earthquake of the 18th century struck the city at around 9:40 am on November 1, 1755, on All Saints’ Day. The earthquake, which is thought to have a magnitude between 8.5 and 9.0, destroyed all structures built on alluvial soils. 35 of the 40 churches in the city were destroyed.
People gathered on the shore as they fled the destruction. This only made things worse.
Because the water, which retreated from the shore during the shaking, later returned as a tsunami and almost fell over the panicked crowd. In the interior, fires broke out in the buildings that remained standing. As a result, it is thought that as many as 30,000 people lost their lives in this incident.
It is necessary to pay attention to the part where 35 of 40 churches were destroyed.
Because the people, who were already quite deeply Catholic at that time, considered it appropriate to say ‘the curse of God’ in order to make sense of such a great disaster.
Except for 1 person…
That person was Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo. The statesman, better known as Marquis de Pombal I in history, was one of the most favorite ministers of the state at the time of the earthquake. With the earthquake, Pombal’s ideas forced modernity into a country that had turned its back on science.
Until the death of the king, strategic decisions were left to Pombal.
Architects in the area gave him several suggestions to repair the damage from the earthquake. The first of these included the relocation of the city to a different location, but was rejected due to the size of the city. In the second, wider and straighter streets were proposed, but this time the landowners objected.
The third recommendation was that the location of the buildings should not be changed and only be repaired. Fourth, it was suggested that the most damaged area should be reviewed and built, and other places should be built according to the previous earthquake plan. The fourth decision was approved.
In this context, some arrangements were made in the Baixa region, which is in the middle of the city.
Straighter streets were built and it was suggested that the houses to be built in the area should be limited to two floors. According to this proposal, the height of the houses would not exceed the width of the street, thus making the streets passable in case of a disaster. Unfortunately, this part could not be implemented according to the sources.
What was truly revolutionary was the removal of the wooden skeleton system called ‘Gaiola’.
The masonry walls surrounding the building protected this skeleton from burning. This system, whose durability was also tested by the force of the soldiers, was made compulsory for other houses as well. As a result of all the arrangements, Lisbon; it became a city with wider and straighter streets, open spaces and earthquake-resistant structures.
In this way, the city, in which religion was dominant and prevented any scientific activity, was made resistant to earthquakes through reason and logic.
In other words, arrangements were made according to the location of the city, right after the earthquake, “Should we put the buildings there?” baseless assumptions are avoided.
It would not be wrong to say that it is not clear whether we will even take lessons in this way and see the necessary steps taken. At least, we see this when we look after the great earthquakes of 1939 and 1999. We hope that after the major earthquakes in 2023, at least the necessary measures will be taken now.
How is Lisbon today?
Unfortunately, the lessons of 1755 seem to have faded into oblivion in Lisbon today. We can say that the reason for this is that there are places in the form of filling on the coasts – which are doomed to collapse in an earthquake – and the public is unaware of this.
Because, according to a survey conducted in 2020, the majority of the public prefers to go to the coast in case of an earthquake by making the same mistake as in 1755. This means meeting the tsunami that will come after the earthquake. However, let us state that the work on disasters in Lisbon continues ‘although not with the same vigor’.
- Sources: Hakai Magazine, Nurettin Kalkan
- For historical information: Dreadful Visitations: Confronting Natural Catastrophe in the Age of Enlightenment
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