Turkey and Syria earthquake: hope fades with the passage of 11 thousand dead as a result of the earthquake

Gaziantep, Turkey – As hope of finding survivors faded, exhausted rescue teams worked through the night in Turkey and Syria, searching for signs of life under the rubble of thousands of buildings destroyed by a devastating earthquake. The death toll rose today, Wednesday, to more than 11,000, in the deadliest earthquake in the world in more than a decade.

Amid calls for the Turkish government to send more aid to the disaster area, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan toured the “tent city” in Kahramanmaras where people forced from their homes live. He acknowledged a lack of response early on but vowed he would “leave no one on the streets”.

Search teams from more than two dozen countries joined tens of thousands of local emergency workers, and pledges of aid poured in from around the world. But the scale of devastation caused by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its powerful aftershocks has been so massive – and spread so widely, including to areas cut off by the ongoing civil war in Syria – that many are still waiting for help.

Related | A newborn, a young child is pulled from the rubble of the Syrian earthquake

In the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were laid side by side on the ground, covered with blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral cars to take them away, according to former journalist Ozel Bekal who saw eight bodies being pulled from the rubble of the building.

Bekal, who was involved in the rescue effort, said he believes at least some of the victims may have frozen to death as temperatures dropped to -6 degrees Celsius (21 Fahrenheit).

“Today is not a happy day, because even today there is no hope left in Malatya,” Bekal told the Associated Press by phone. “Nobody gets out alive from under the rubble.”

A hotel building collapsed in the city, Bikal said, and more than 100 people may be trapped.

He said there was a shortage of rescuers in the area he was in, and rescue efforts by volunteers and government teams were hampered by the cold. Road closures and damage in the area also impeded movement and access.

“Our hands can’t catch anything because of the cold,” Bikal said. “Working machines are needed.”

The scale of the suffering was staggering in a region already reeling from more than a decade of civil war in Syria that has displaced millions within the country and sent many more seeking refuge in Turkey. With thousands of buildings downed, it is not clear how many people may still be trapped under the rubble.

Turkey’s disaster management agency said the death toll in the country exceeded 8,500. Syria’s health ministry said the death toll in government-held areas had risen to more than 1,200, while at least 1,400 people had died in the rebel-held northwest. , according to volunteer responders known as the White Helmets.

This brings the total total to 11,000 since Monday’s earthquake and many strong aftershocks. Tens of thousands injured.

The 2011 earthquake near Japan that triggered a tsunami left nearly 20,000 dead. Neither Turkey nor Syria provided figures on the number of people still missing, as requested by Pope Francis during his weekly public meeting, prayers and demonstrations of solidarity in the aftermath of the “devastating” earthquake.

Syrian officials said the bodies of more than 100 Syrians who died during the earthquake in Turkey have been brought back to their homes for burial through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. Another 20 bodies were on their way to the border, said Mazen Alloush, an official on the Syrian side of the border, adding that they are all Syrian refugees who fled the war in their country.

As concerns grow about those still trapped, Polish rescue workers working in Turkey said they have pulled nine people alive from the rubble so far, including parents of two and a 13-year-old girl, from the rubble in the city of Pisnye.

They conceded that low temperatures were working against them, although two firefighters told Polish TVN24 that the fact that people had been trapped in bed under warm blankets because of the pre-dawn quake could help. Rescuers are currently trying to reach a woman they know is in her bed.

Almost two days after the earthquake, rescuers pulled out a 3-year-old boy, Arif Kan, from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Kahramanmaras, not far from the epicenter.

With the boy’s lower body trapped under slabs of concrete and twisted rebar, emergency crews placed a blanket over his torso to protect him from below-freezing temperatures as they cut debris away from him, keeping an eye on the possibility of causing another collapse.

The boy’s father, Ertugrul Kesey, whose son had been rescued earlier, sobbed and was taken to an ambulance.

“Currently, the name of hope in Kahramanmaras is Arif Kan,” Turkish TV reporter stated, as the dramatic rescue operation was broadcast to the country.

A few hours later, rescuers pulled out 10-year-old Betul Edis from the rubble of her home in Adiyaman. To applause from the onlookers, her grandfather kissed her and spoke softly to her as she was loaded into an ambulance.

On Monday afternoon in a town in northwestern Syria, residents found a crying baby still attached to the umbilical cord of its deceased mother. Relatives told the Associated Press that the little girl was the only member of her family to survive a building collapse in the small town of Jenderes.

But such stories came more than two days after Monday’s predawn quake, which struck a vast area and destroyed thousands of buildings, with frigid temperatures and relentless aftershocks complicating rescue efforts.

Many survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters.

“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a stove to heat, we don’t have anything. Our kids are in bad shape. We’re all getting wet in the rain and our kids are outside in the cold,” Aysan Kurt, 27, told the Associated Press. “We did not die of hunger or earthquake, but we will die of freezing cold.”

In Syria, aid efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions related to the war.

The area sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Nearly 18,000 people were killed in similar strong earthquakes that struck northwestern Turkey in 1999.

Al-Sayyid narrated from Bab al-Hawa in Syria. Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. David Rising in Bangkok, Frank Jordan in Berlin, and Robert Badendyk in Istanbul contributed to this story.