A teacher shares Turkish rescue experiences from the earthquake

ISTANBUL – After two devastating earthquakes hit Turkey in February, high school geography teacher Irfan Akar rushed to respond to a plea for help.

Akar, who teaches at Cevre College in Istanbul, traveled to the quake-zone city of Hatay as a volunteer with Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, known as AFAD.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority gave the volunteers a tent on the first day.

When he arrived, Akar said, rescue operations were already in place.

“The Disaster and Emergency Management volunteers and the Turkish Armed Forces have been there since I first went to the field,” Akar said.

Some of the damage left by the earthquake. (Photo courtesy of Irfan Akar).

Akar described some heartbreaking rescues.

During the rescue mission, Akar and his team were trying to rescue an old man from a collapsed building. The man – who could not locate his wife and daughter – kept asking where they were and how they were doing. He even insisted that they must be saved first.

What the man didn’t know, Akar said, was that his family was already dead, and the priority was to save the people who were still alive.

Irfan Akar wears a life jacket at Çivri College in Istanbul. (Lena Koksal/YJI)

Akar couldn’t lie to the man, but he was desperate to save him. So he tells him that the rescue team will eventually get his family out.

Akar spoke about his most important moment on the field.

A woman, who he guessed was about 58 years old, was trapped under two girders. The team that was with Akar in the quake zone could hear her, but to get her out they needed a rotary hammer drill to cut through concrete and steel. There was one at the fire station next door.

“We took the generator and the drill from them, and we got to a certain point. But after about 30 minutes, the neighboring team had to urgently move to another place. We were left without a power source,” he said.

After a while, he and the crew – who had neither eaten nor rested – left to go to their tents for a while. At that moment, he said, they were all thinking of the woman.

When they were leaving, there was still a man. Irfan Akar asked him to take the woman out if he and the crew could not return.

“I went to that building again with my friend,” Akar said. We were afraid to find out if there was still a dead mother there, and we felt so guilty. ”

From the surrounding people they learn that the woman was saved.

“And I think if they don’t get her out and she dies, we’ll never be able to forget her.”

Akar volunteered to help after the February 6 earthquake when the Ministry of National Education requested emergency assistance from civil servants such as teachers and other government workers.

He and other teachers went to the district governor’s office on the same day and quickly left for Adana, near the affected area, on the free Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. Take a bus from Adana to Hatay.

According to Akar, the biggest shortcoming of the earthquake site was coordination.

But Akar said it is difficult because each building needs about 100 volunteers.

“When you think of a team of 100 people in 255,000 buildings, it’s an incredibly large number.”

Akar said rescue workers did a good job with what they had, but local municipalities could have been more prepared.

“I think it would be better if every district, every neighborhood, every municipality is ready,” Akar said.

When asked about the speed of the government’s response, Akar said, “It is always difficult to be in an earthquake zone right away.”

Akar said international standards for earthquake rescue require help to arrive within two or three days — survivors are expected to be on their own until then.

“Since there are 11 cities, 62 municipalities, and nearly 10,000 villages destroyed, everything has become more difficult,” he said. “The destruction is colossal.”

According to Akar, the economic damage from the earthquake amounted to about 103 billion US dollars, or 2 trillion Turkish liras.

Akar said the affected region makes up about 9% of the Turkish economy.

(Photos provided by Irfan Akar). Training for the next disaster

After completing his volunteer work—which included little time for actual education—Akar attended additional training for future disasters, learning what to do during and after an earthquake.

When asked why he decided to attend the emergency response training, Akar shared his concerns about an earthquake in Istanbul in the future.

‘Hatay is a much smaller area compared to Istanbul where I live. The population is much higher and I think I cannot save myself, my family and my people. I need a better education.”

With that motivation, apply to the Volunteer Training Program.

“It has been very useful and it is completely free. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 60 can participate,” said Akar.

In training, volunteers learn what urban rescue is, what you can do, and what AFAD and natural disaster are, according to Akar. Then there are a few days of psychological training.

(Photo courtesy of Irfan Akar).

” For example, they teach you how to act and communicate keeping in mind the overall psychology. “You learn how to respond to the wounded, how to deal with a thief who comes to steal the tent, and what you can do if there is a fight,” said Akar.

“The training was very good. A nurse gave first aid training and a firefighter did firefighting training. All the trainers were experts in their field. And of course all of them are disaster and emergency management volunteers.

He explained the basic things every person should know to save himself and emphasized that one has to save himself first to save others – what is an earthquake and when will help arrive.

Everyone should definitely know first aid. “I think even knowing the correct way to hold someone’s neck in a drowning situation can help,” Akar said.

Akar shared other lessons from the training so that people can prepare before the next earthquake.

“We need to know the solidity of the building we live in, the ground. We need to know which school we go to and where we work. We must train with our family before the earthquake. We have to decide where to hide in the house. If we are in different places, we must decide Where to meet. It is necessary to know what should be in the earthquake bag. ”

Akar, who shared many cases of theft in the earthquake area, said that although the earthquake is shocking and shocking, some people decided to take advantage of it.

Training began on the way to the disaster site.

Besides wanting to help his Turkish compatriots away from his home in Istanbul, Irfan Akar wants to be ready to help his community when the next earthquake comes. (Photo courtesy of Irfan Akar). Remember the past

Akar has learned some lessons from past disasters.

”I experienced the Marmaray earthquake in 1999; There was looting at that time. “I saw people buying food and blankets in the markets, which is completely normal,” said Akar. “They would take what they needed, so I don’t like to call it looting. People were forced to live in this cold. I haven’t experienced anything else, although I might have it. Safety is the most important issue in natural disasters.”

Since the areas that were affected by the double earthquake in February are among the most historical in Turkey, there have been many questions regarding the condition of the historical artifacts.

Akar spoke of an initiative that was taken just two days after the disaster.

“There is already stock, which is good. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, it started on the second day of the earthquake.

He said that the artifacts will be restored.

“Those that survive will be reinforced,” he said, adding that the artifacts that have been completely destroyed will be replicated as closely as possible with the original ones.

This story was reported by Naz Mergen and Lena Koksal. Written by Mergen, Koksal, Beren Deniz Ocek, Ipek Eser and Sina Naz Ekci. Koksal translated from Turkish into English.

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