>

Props to whoever constructed your building I cant even imagine how a structure stays intact while everyone inside is getting tossed around
Since the link goes to an alert with no article behind it currently, here are a few news articles for your convenience:

Reuters: Turkey earthquake of magnitude 7.9 shakes central region, Syria
AP: Powerful 7.8 quake knocks down buildings in Turkey, Syria
Hürriyet Daily News: 7.4 magnitude quake knocks down buildings in southern Türkiye
BBC: Strong earthquake hits south-eastern Turkey near Syria border
Times of Israel: Strong quake knocks down buildings in Turkey and Syria; shaking felt across Israel >

lasted 40 seconds.  An eternity in earthquake terms >

I have a friend who was in the Northridge quake.  He actually saw the ground roll towards him, knocked him on his ass. >

I saw this happen in the Loma Prietta quake. I was playing flag football when it hit, and I watched the whole field just roll up towards me, wave after wave. It was surreal. >

I distinctly remember my middle-school Earth science teacher telling us about that, in the right conditions you can see the actual shockwave rollin up on you >

They don't call it soil liquefaction for nothing. >

Japan  earthquake March 11, 2011 Liquefaction >

That video was crazy. Even crazier when played in 2x speed so you can more clearly see the shifting. >

Syrian officials say that this was the biggest earthquake in the history of Syria. >

Absolutely devastating. >

I reside in Kahramanmaraş. I was about to sleep laying on my bed. İt felt like an eternity and I was pretty sure I was going to be buried under rubble. Took my cellphone on my hand in case they would find me easier. >

Are you and your family ok? >

Me and my family are OK. I'm a teacher in Kahramanmaraş and one of my colleague and his family are still under rubble. We are waiting for any help from other countries with search and rescue. >

What is the current situation in Maraş? There is insufficient info as I'm seeing, what happened after the explosion from the gas pipeline? >

Explosion happened in a village I think. We are all in the black as everyone else >

My thoughts are with you, holy smokes that must be terrifying. >

I am from Turkey. The news are saying that it impacted 10 cities, even in Malatya (which is not the center of the earthquake), there are over 140 collapsed buildings. In addition, it is currently snowing in some of these cities.
Edit (00.38 GMT-3): Correction on the total number of buildings collapsed. The vice president stated that there were 4758 confirmed collapsed buildings + they have not confirmed the status of remaining reported 1459 buildings. 14483 injured & 2379 people have lost their lives. In total, 7840 people saved from the rubbles up until this point.
Edit (23.25 GMT-3): 6217 buildings collapsed & 13293 injured & 2316 people have lost their lives.
Edit (22.55 GMT-3): 5606 buildings collapsed & 12068 injured & 1762 people have lost their lives. Appreciating all the international aid, wishes, and prayers. We were definitely not prepared for this disaster. Still, there are some locations that have not received any help (especially in Hatay), local people are trying to extract their loved ones from rubbles themselves.
Edit (18.50 GMT-3): 3471 buildings collapsed & 9733 injured & 1541 people have lost their lives. It is now dark in the area, and extremely cold.
Edit (13.42 GMT-3): Just had an afterschock with 7.5 (revised as 7.6) magnitude (Kahramanmaraş). Reporters are saying that more buildings have collapsed. I have no words, we are in absolute shock.
Edit (13.09 GMT-3) - Latest official numbers according to Erdoğan's statement: 2818 buildings collapsed & 5385 injured & 912 people have lost their lives, 2470 people were saved from the debris. Again, especially with the updated number of collapsed buildings, we can expect much higher numbers of casualties.
Edit (10.17 GMT-3): According to the first statement of vice president , 1710 buildings collapsed & 2323 injured & 284 people have lost their lives. Unfortunately, these numbers will seem to exponentially increase over time.
Edit (09.50 GMT-3) - after initial reports:
Diyarbakır - 7 buildings collapsed
Şanlıurfa - 19 buildings collapsed
Adana - 6 buildings collapsed (two of them have 14 and 17 floors, all occupied)
Osmaniye - 65 buildings collapsed
Gaziantep - 531 buildings collapsed (including historical Gaziantep Castle)
Malatya - 140 buildings collapsed
Adıyaman - 100 buildings colllapsed
We haven't heard from the actual center of the earthquake (Kahramanmaraş) yet. It is bad, it is really really bad. All of us are hoping for miracles and some good news. No news about Kahramanmaraş yet except horrific videos. There are also explosions/fires in the factories and natural gas lines in the area. >

There is no way those numbers are accurate right now, there is a video of Diyarbakır on Twitter and just in that 15 second video you can see at least 20-30 collapsed buildings. 
Numbers are not accurate right now, it is gonna get worse, prepare yourselves for the worst. >

The Gaziantep Castle, which has withstood over 2200 years of earthquakes and erosion is gone. Insane.
The aftermath videos from the populated areas are horrific, whole blocks are completely flattened. >

Gone? Like.. collapsed? I have a friend there and he told me it’s damaged, where did you read about it? >

Holy shit! >

Yeah the damage is kind of insane... So sad to see history destroyed like that >

Turkey has a building standards crisis in that many many buildings were constructed with functionally zero qualified oversight and this is probably going to be a major cause of many hundreds if not thousands of deaths. >

I read there is a legal loophole in which unfinished buildings do not get taxed, so buildings often are left in a "slowly if ever" finished state with exposed rebar jutting out the top... Maybe the builder moves on and just leaves it unfinished.  In the meantime people or shops move in to the lower floors. This sets a low standard for construction accountability at any scale. >


loophole in which unfinished buildings do not get taxed

If this is true, puts into perspective what kind of morons the lawmakers are >

I hadn't heard of this being a thing in Turkey but it's also a thing done in Peru.  If you pick any random streetview there the odds are good that you'll see a lot of buildings that appear to be unfinished >

Very big thing in Greece too >

Tax dodging overtook wrestling as the Greek national sport >

Was sleeping, my whole building started shaking EXTREMELY violently.
I live in greater Beirut Lebanon.
I cant imagine what it was like in turkey.
Also iam pretty sure a building collapsed in hamra st too >

Im in ashrafieh, i was asleep when my bed started to lightly shake, i thought it was yhe strong wind that was shaking my window and room, that was until the building started the sway the closet to be slammed open and my mom screaming my name. 
0/10 would not recommend >

I'm sorry, I know this is super serious, but your rating and recommendation of the experience made me laugh. I hope you and your family are all ok. >

Lol dw my dude, family is safe and sound >

Experience = 0/10. Experience with hummus = 3/10 >

Seeing reports of cell phone networks being down probably due to extreme surge in demand. Seeing so many tweets and instagram stories from people who are stuck under collapsed buildings asking for help. Super heartbreaking. >

Oh my god :( I can't even imagine the horror that they must be experiencing, especially knowing that they may very well be buried alive... >

some of these people are going to have to wait a whole week before getting rescued, maybe even 2 weeks. >

Rapid damage estimation using CATDAT for the Turkey Earthquake in the order of 11,400 deaths (Range: 3,200 to 25,900) with estimates of economic damage in the order of $10+ bn USD.
NEW UPDATE:
DUAL Earthquake ESTIMATE (Turkey-Syria) Mw7.7 + Mw7.5 and aftershocks: Risklayer CATDAT model using adjusted shakemaps + previous damage. Fatalities: 20180 median (Range: 5,200 - 48,500) Ec. Damage: ca. $20bn.  Much uncertainty due to occupancy, previous damage + trapped ppl.
Credit to u/imreloadin for their comment >

Holy shit 11,400 people died in 40 seconds!!? >

A second quake hit about an hour ago. Officials say it's not an aftershock. 7.5 magnitude, 80km from the first one's epicenter.  
It's going to be way, way worse... >

I currently reside in Baghdad, Iraq. 
The Earthquake woke me up from sleep, our entire apartment building was shaking.
We very VERY rarely feel earthquakes here, so for us to feel it that strongly, it must be insane. >

Baghdad is about 500 miles / 800 kilometers from the epicenter of this earthquake, for anyone wondering.
For American friends: it's roughly equivalent to a New York City earthquake waking somebody up in Charlotte, North Carolina. >

What the actual fuck. >

Gaziantep resident here. I literally got thrown off from my bed and woke with impact of hitting the floor. The building I am residing in is in good conditions, and luckily all residents got out. Currently staying in the car with my family. >

Damn man, that is crazy as hell. A 7.8 earthquake is really fucking serious. I imagine the death tole from this is going to be off the charts. Don’t go back inside, big aftershocks will probably be happening for the next few days. Some of those can climb as high as 5.0 and destroy buildings that are already heavily damaged from the 1st quake. Stay safe my dude. >

It was crazy. I can still remember the exact moment. Shelves of drawer next to my bed pounding my skin as earthquake causes it to opens and closes while I duck next to two of them in a fear I never felt before.