The Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (DASK), a government institution, said they have received more than 30,000 reports of damaged buildings in Turkey following Monday’s powerful quakes, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday.
Turkey’s most powerful earthquake in almost 100 years struck near the city of Gaziantep as people slept early Monday, killing more than 18,000 and injuring over 70,000 across 10 southeastern provinces hit hardest by the disaster.
The 7.8-magnitude quake was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude temblor that struck the region in the middle of search and rescue efforts the same day.
Selva Eren, the general manager of state-owned Turkish reinsurer Turk Reasurans AS as well as DASK, on Friday told Anadolu that they had received over 30,000 reports of damaged buildings in the first four days after the quakes, adding that the actual number of damaged apartment blocks is estimated to be higher when property owners who do not have DASK insurance are taken into account.
Eren said they have started assigning experts for damage assessment in the areas affected by the earthquakes.
She added that they have the ability to compensate for the damages of Monday’s quakes with a payment capacity of TL 117 billion ($6.2 billion) in total, including earthquake funds of TL 23 billion ($1.2 billion) and the “significant amount of reinsurance protection” they added to it.
Eren also said they paid their first claim for damages less than 24 hours after the earthquake and are continuing to quickly settle other claims.