The death toll from the Turkey and Syria earthquake exceeds 12,000

Rescue teams continued their search on Wednesday for survivors buried under the rubble of thousands of buildings destroyed in Turkey and Syria in catastrophic earthquakes and aftershocks that killed more than 12,000 people.

Amid calls for the Turkish government to send more aid to the disaster area, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the “tent city” in Kahramanmaras, where people forced from their homes live. He acknowledged shortcomings in Turkey’s response to the disaster early on, but vowed that “no one will be left on the streets”.

Turkey now has tens of thousands of relief staff in the quake zone, and they have been joined by research teams from more than two dozen countries. But with the devastation so widespread, many are still waiting for help, and hope for the survivors to be rescued fades.

Mesut Hanser holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southeast of the country, on February 7, 2023. Adam Altan/AFP Press via Getty Images

Experts said the window to escape for those trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings or unable to access water, food, weather protection or medical care is closing fast. At the same time, they said it was too early to give up hope of further rescues.

“The first 72 hours are critical because the condition of trapped and injured people can rapidly deteriorate and become fatal if they are not rescued and given medical attention in time,” said Stephen Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England. .

Turkey’s disaster management agency said on Wednesday that recovered bodies of people who died in the earthquakes but could not be identified will be buried within five days even if their identities are not revealed. The agency, known as AFAD, said the unidentified victims would be buried after DNA and fingerprint tests and after being photographed for future identification. This move is in line with Islamic funeral rituals, which require burial as soon as possible after a person has died.

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 building’s rubble.

Bikal was involved in the rescue effort and said he believes at least some of the victims may have frozen to death with temperatures as low as 21 degrees 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.” Bekal said a hotel building collapsed in the city and more than 100 people may be trapped. He said there was a shortage of rescuers in the area he was in, and the cold, road closures and damage in the area impeded movement and access. “Our hands can’t catch anything because of the cold,” Bikal said. “Working machines are needed.”

Turkish authorities have also said they target disinformation, and internet watchdog group NetBlocks said early Wednesday that access to Twitter in Turkey is restricted, despite it being used by survivors to alert rescuers. However, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday night that “Twitter has been informed by the Turkish government that access will be re-enabled soon.” The scale of suffering has also been staggering in Syria, a region already reeling from more than a decade of civil war that has displaced millions within the country, prompting many to seek refuge in Turkey. With thousands of buildings down there, it was not clear how many people were still trapped under the rubble.

Relief efforts in Syria 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 and subject to war-related Western sanctions.

The United Nations said it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies into the rebel-held northwest, and on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Egypt had sent a medical and rescue team.

On Wednesday, the European Union said Syria had requested humanitarian aid to support the victims. The EU representative insisted that the bloc’s sanctions against the Syrian government had no impact on its ability to assist. On Wednesday, Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous visited neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo, where buildings have collapsed. “Our priority now is to rescue the people who are still under the rubble,” he said. In rebel-held parts of northwestern Syria, rescuers pulled a man, a woman and four children from the rubble in the towns of Salqin, Hareem and Jenderes, according to the White Helmets.

Residents of the town of Jenderes, northwestern Syria, found, at noon today, Monday, a crying newborn who was still connected to the umbilical cord of her deceased mother. Her father’s cousin told Agence France-Presse that the child was the only survivor of her family when her family’s home collapsed. The child’s father, mother, aunt and siblings were killed.

Polish rescue workers working in Turkey said they have pulled a number of people alive from the rubble so far, including parents of two children and a 13-year-old girl from the rubble in the city of Pisny. Low temperatures were working against them, they said, 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.

But David Alexander, professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, said data from previous earthquakes suggested the likelihood of survival was now slim, particularly for individuals who had suffered serious injuries or had significant blood loss. “Statistically, today is the day we will stop finding people,” he said. “This does not mean that we should stop looking.” Alexander warned that the final death toll may not be known for weeks due to the huge amount of rubble that needs sifting. Yet rescue stories continued to provide hope. Almost two days after the earthquake, rescuers pulled out a 3-year-old boy, Arif Can, from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Kahramanmaras, not far from the epicenter. With the boy’s lower body confined under slabs of concrete and twisted iron, emergency teams spread a blanket over his torso to protect him from below-freezing temperatures as they cut debris away from him, considering the possibility of causing another collapse. The boy’s father, Ertugrul Kesey, who was rescued earlier, broke down in tears while his son was taken away and 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. 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 keep warm, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We all get wet in the rain and our children are 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.”

Rescue workers carry Yigit Kakmak, an 8-year-old survivor, at the site of a collapsed building 52 hours after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 8, 2023 in Hatay, Turkey. Getty Images

Up to 23 million people could be affected in the quake-stricken region, according to Adelheid Marchang, WHO emergency officer, who called it “a crisis on top of multiple crises”.

Erdogan, while touring the quake-hit areas, acknowledged problems early on in the response but said it had improved. He said his government would distribute the equivalent of $532 to the affected families.

The disaster comes at a sensitive time for Erdogan, who faces presidential and parliamentary elections in May amid an economic recession and high inflation. Perceptions that his government has mishandled the crisis could severely hurt his ranking.

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

——————– HOW YOU CAN HELP EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS: Click here for details and links to several reputable relief agencies helping earthquake survivors in both Turkey and Syria.

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