Although the Avcilar district of Istanbul in the western part of the city is ~150 km far from the Kocaeli earthquake epicenter, many buildings collapsed during the earthquake.
The 10-second temblor, which was not the long-dreaded Big One but erupted so fiercely that it initially seemed every bit as intense, was blamed for at least 33 deaths--nearly half of which occurred when a three-floor apartment complex near the epicenter in Northridge collapsed into two stories.
Michigan, the epicenter of the collapsing auto industry, has the highest unemployment rate in the country, at 12.6percentt.
For those trying to flee the very epicenter of the collapsing World Trade Center towers, the most horrid thought of all finally dawned on them: nowhere was safe.
Since 1996 the highest observed seismic intensity has been 6.5, which was recorded at Kawaguchi, Niigata Prefecture during the 2004 Mid-Niigata Prefecture earthquake (M = 6.8, focal depth 13 km) in the source region 2.9 km from the epicenter, where many wooden houses collapsed (Japan Meteorological Agency, 2005).
In Tabanli, also near the epicenter, some large buildings had partially collapsed, and videos and photographs showed dozens of people clambering across the now-concave roofs, searching for survivors.
Friends gathered around the coffin of Alessio Di Simone, who died in a student dormitory that collapsed here in L'Aquila, the epicenter of the predawn earthquake.
The Health Ministry said it was sending medical teams to Tasikmalaya, the town nearest the epicenter, where several buildings were reported to have collapsed, Reuters reported.
In the town of Juyuan, south of the epicenter in the city of Wenchuan, a school collapsed, trapping 900 students in the rubble and setting off a frantic search for survivors that stretched through the night.
Most people in this community were originally native inhabitants of Leigu Town, a subordinate town of Beichuan County, which is the epicenter of the earthquake where 80% of the houses collapsed and more than 1,000 people died.
