Among the residents of one of the Nurdagi complexes was Ramazan, a shopkeeper who lost eight relatives in the disaster – four of them in a single building.
The father of four was at home with his wife and two sons when the tremors began.
“I was lying in my bed and woke up when it started,” says the 58-year-old.
“The guys started screaming from the other room and I told everyone to keep quiet.
“I kept saying ‘keep calm, keep calm,’ and then I prayed in my head until it was over.”
Their home was too badly damaged for the family to live there, while nearby Ramazan’s small general store was also completely leveled when its roof collapsed.
In a park in Gaziantep, Turks and Syrian refugees gathered around fires to protect themselves from sub-zero temperatures at night.
“The nights are cold,” says Ahmed Zinga, 29, who has lost at least ten family members.
Waiting to find out if he can return to his homeland, in the meantime he is desperate to know the fate of other relatives who are missing.
“With further digging, we may find others who are missing,” he says.
After inspecting some of the rubble last week, Erdogan pledged to provide 10,000 lire (£437) to each affected family and launch a construction blitz that will house all survivors within a year.
But according to UCL’s Alexander, full reconstruction in Turkey can take up to 25 years – with no guarantee that what is built will be to the correct standards this time around.
In addition, the country’s perilous financial situation could further complicate its efforts or render other promises made ahead of the scheduled May elections untenable.
Erdogan is said to have fueled inflation by lowering interest rates even as prices rose, while promising higher salaries and pensions to Turks.
The result was 80 percent inflation in a few months last year and a falling lira. Many analysts suspect the president is keen to rush to the polls, knowing it’s only a matter of time before his policies backfire.
“Actually, if he wins, the currency has to collapse because there’s not going to be confidence and he’s created this artificial scenario that can’t be sustained over a long period of time,” Mike Harris, founder of Cribstone Strategic Macro, told CNBC.
Locally, many people who have gathered near destroyed buildings are reluctant to talk about politics – and experts are divided on how damaging the earthquake will be for Erdogan.
The President made a show of arresting developers behind some of the destroyed buildings as they tried to flee the country in a sign he may be positioning them as scapegoats.
Back in London, Filoglu is desperately hoping Turkey’s earthquake recovery will be different this time. As a teenager, she suffered from insomnia, nightmares, and nervousness after her own near-death experience.
“We thought those days were over,” she says, “but it’s still happening. And if we have bad designs again, it repeats itself.”
Additional reporting from Diego Cupolo in Turkey