- Two people were rescued on Thursday
- The death toll in Turkey and Syria exceeds 42,000
- The authorities have yet to announce missing figures
- UN launches $1 billion contract for Turkey
KAHRAMANMARAS/ANTAKYA, Turkey, February 16 (Portal) – Two people were said to have been pulled alive from rubble in Turkey on Thursday, more than 10 days after a powerful earthquake struck the region, but such rescues have become increasingly rare and leave anger to smolder when hope dies.
A 17-year-old girl was pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, broadcaster TRT Haber reported, 248 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the middle of the night on February 6.
Footage showed her being carried away on a stretcher covered with a gold-colored thermal blanket while an emergency worker held up an IV drip.
Neslihan Kilic was rescued about 10 hours later.
“We had prepared her grave and we asked rescue workers to stop digging as we were concerned they would damage the remaining bodies under the rubble. Moments later, her voice could be heard under the ruins of the building,” Kilic’s brother-in-law told CNN Turk.
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Kilic’s husband and two children are still missing.
The quake killed at least 36,187 people in southern Turkey, while authorities in neighboring Syria have reported 5,800 deaths – a number that has changed little in days.
International aid organizations are stepping up their efforts to help the millions of homeless people, many of whom are sleeping in tents, mosques, schools or cars.
The United Nations on Thursday asked for more than $1 billion in funds for Turkey’s relief effort, just two days after launching a $400 million appeal for Syrians.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in his first television commentary since the earthquake, said responding to the disaster required more resources than the government had at its disposal.
Neither Turkey nor Syria have said how many people are still missing.
UN Secretary General Martin Griffiths, who visited Turkey last week, said the people had “experienced unspeakable heartache,” adding: “We must stand by them in their darkest hour and make sure they get the support they need.” “
For families still waiting to find lost relatives, there is growing anger at what they see as corrupt building practices and a deeply flawed urban development that has left thousands of homes and businesses crumbling.
“I have two children. no others They’re both lying under this rubble,” Sevil Karaabdüloğlu said as excavators demolished the remains of a high-end apartment block in the southern Turkish city of Antakya where her two daughters had lived.
[1/7] A man searches the rubble for the remains of his belongings after his home was destroyed following a deadly earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey February 16, 2023. Portal/Thaier Al-Sudani
About 650 people are said to have died when the Renaissance residence building collapsed.
“We rented this place as an elite place, a safe place. How do I know the contractor built it like this? … Everyone is trying to make a profit. They are all guilty,” she said.
About 200 km (125 miles) away, about 100 people gathered at a small cemetery in the town of Pazarcik to bury a family of four – Ismail and Selin Yavuzatmaca and their two young daughters – who all died in the Renaissance building.
Turkey has promised to investigate anyone suspected of causing the buildings to collapse and has ordered the detention of more than 100 suspects, including developers.
AID CONVOYS
Across the border in Syria, the earthquake has shaken a region divided and devastated by 12 years of civil war.
The Syrian government says the death toll in the area it controls is 1,414. More than 4,000 deaths have been reported in the rebel-held northwest, but rescuers say no one has been found alive there since February 9.
Relief efforts have been hampered by the conflict and many in the North West feel abandoned as supplies almost always go to other parts of the vast disaster area.
Deliveries from Turkey were completely disrupted in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake when a route used by the United Nations was temporarily closed. Earlier this week, Assad gave permission to open two more border crossings.
As of Thursday, 119 UN trucks had passed through the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam crossings since the earthquake, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Portal.
In south-eastern Turkey, heavy machinery tried to clear piles of rubble blocking numerous cities.
US bank JPMorgan estimated that the direct cost of destroying physical structures in Turkey could be 2.5% of growth domestic product, or $25 billion.
Many survivors have fled the disaster areas, but some have chosen to stay despite the dire conditions.
“We pass our days on bread, soup and meals as part of the help sent by people. We have no life left. We are afraid,” said Mustafa Akan in Adiyaman, who sleeps outdoors and warms himself by burning wood keeps in a bucket.
Additional reporting by Henriette Chacar, Ezgi Erkoyun, Timour Azhari, Firas Makdesi, Khalil Ashawi, Hamuda Hassan, Abir Al Ahmar, Jonathan Spicer and Michelle Nichols; writing by Tom Perry, Crispian Balmer and Rosalba O’Brien; Edited by Christina Fincher, Edmund Blair and Daniel Wallis
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