Time is running out for rescuers who are still trying to find survivors in Turkey and Syria on Wednesday, two days after the terrible earthquake, which continues to grow and now exceeds 9,500 dead.
In the freezing cold, rescue workers are racing against time to try to rescue survivors of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and neighboring northern Syria at dawn Monday.
Bad weather is complicating the rescue task, and Turkey’s interior minister warned on Tuesday that the next 48 hours would be “crucial” to find survivors.
The road leading to the Turkish city of Antakya (ancient Antioch) in the hard-hit Hatay province is congested with relief trucks, construction machinery and ambulances slaloming between fleeing private cars.
The city is on the ground, sunk in a thick cloud of dust as the demolition machines dig through the rubble. As far as the eye can see there are only collapsed or partially collapsed buildings. Even the ones that are still holding are deeply broken and no one dares to stay there. “Antakya is over,” the residents repeat.
In Gaziantep, a Turkish city near the epicenter, a resident has already lost hope of finding her aunt buried alive under the rubble. “It’s too late. Now we’re waiting for our dead,” she says.
International relief supplies arrived in Turkey on Tuesday, where national mourning was declared for seven days. The official death toll there is currently 6,957. This is already the worst death toll Turkey has known since 1999, when 17,000 people died, including a thousand in Istanbul.
At that time, 2,547 deaths were registered in Syria. According to the White Helmets (civil defense volunteers) in the rebel areas, the toll is expected to “rise significantly as hundreds of people remain trapped under the rubble”.
“where is the state
We are trying to save lives on both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border. A newborn baby was recovered alive from the rubble in Jandairis on the Syrian side. This little girl was still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, who died like everyone else in the family.
“We heard a noise when we were digging (…) we cleared the ground and found this little one, thank God,” family relative Khalil Sawadi told AFP on Tuesday. The baby was taken to the hospital and his condition is stable, according to a doctor interviewed by AFP.
But for Irmak, 15 is too late. His father, Mesut Hancer, silently shakes the hand of his dead child, who emerges lifeless from the rubble of a building in Kahramanmaras. No help, no help had arrived on Tuesday in this Turkish city of more than a million people, devastated and buried under snow.
“Where is the state? Where is he? (…) It’s been two days and we haven’t seen anyone. (…) The children died from the cold,” protests Ali, who is also waiting for reinforcements there and still hopes to see his brother and nephew again, trapped in the rubble of their building.
In Sawran, northern Syria, Mahmoud Brimo falls to his knees in front of a pile of rubble, the remains of his house. Not far away, a gray dome testifies that there used to be a mosque. “War years hadn’t devastated us so much,” he regrets, before adding, “We lost everything in one fell swoop. We’re totally devastated.”
Fearing to return home, survivors have taken refuge at Turkey’s Gaziantep Airport. “Now our lives are so filled with uncertainty. How am I supposed to take care of these children?” asks Zahide Sutcu, who fled his home with his two young children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 23 million people are “potentially exposed, including around five million people at risk”.
International Aid
The first teams of foreign rescue workers arrived on Tuesday. According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had declared a state of emergency for three months in the ten provinces affected by the earthquake, 45 countries offered their help.
The European Union has mobilized 1,185 rescuers and 79 search dogs from 19 member states, including France, Germany and Greece, to Turkey. For Syria, the EU is in contact with its humanitarian partners on the ground and is financing aid measures.
US President Joe Biden has promised Mr Erdogan “all the help he needs, whatever it is”. Two rescue teams were due to arrive in Turkey on Wednesday morning.
China on Tuesday announced it would dispatch $5.9 million in relief supplies, as well as specialized rescue workers in urban areas, medical teams and emergency kits.
Even Ukraine announced it would send 87 rescue workers to Turkey despite the Russian invasion.
The UAE has pledged $100 million in aid and Saudi Arabia, which has had no ties to the Damascus regime since 2012, has announced an airlift to help affected populations in both countries.
In Syria, on the other hand, the appeal of the authorities in Damascus was heard primarily by its Russian ally. According to the army, more than 300 Russian soldiers are already on site to help provide assistance.
Washington said Tuesday it was working with local NGOs in Syria and insisted its “funds naturally go to the Syrian people, not the regime” in Damascus.
The quake hit the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, the only one through which almost all humanitarian aid from Turkey is sent to rebel-held areas in Syria, the UN said.
The Syrian Red Crescent, which operates in government areas, has called on the EU to lift sanctions on Damascus.