From Haiti to Japan, what happens after film crews leave disaster zones?

Source:Financial Times Date:26Feb2023

The article contains detailed commentary on how the quake might affect Erdogan’s electoral fortunes
Turkey’s poor response to the 1999 earthquake centred on İzmit may have helped clear a path to victory for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party in 2002. With elections due again this year, anger over his government’s seeming lack of preparedness and lax enforcement of building regulations could now contribute to Erdogan’s political demise. Ajay Chhibber was the World Bank’s country head when the 1999 quake struck, killing more than 17,000 people. “I’d never seen anything like it. You saw these buildings flattened like pancakes, large submarines from the naval base flung up on the mountains,” he recalled. Chhibber said one early problem was trying to process international aid. “There were coats and shoes and food items but a lot of it was wasted. It required a lot of effort to receive these things and organise them.” Aid workers noticed a proliferation of pawn shops as people sold possessions to raise funds. Men were leaving their families to find work in Istanbul. The World Bank started a system of cash transfers after concluding that people needed money rather than physical goods to preserve the local economy and communities.