Turkey-Syria earthquake toll passes 17,000
ANTAKYA, Turkey/JANDARIS, Syria – The plight of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by earthquakes in Turkey and Syria grew more desperate on Thursday, while hopes faded of many more people being found alive amid the ruins of cities.
The death toll from Monday’s quakes, which struck in the early morning, passed 17,000 on Thursday across both countries.
It was the biggest natural disaster to strike the region since 1999, when a similarly powerful quake killed more than 17,000 people in Turkey.
The death toll in Turkey rose to 14,014 by Thursday morning. In Syria, already devastated by nearly 12 years of civil war, more than 3,000 people have died, according to the government and a rescue service in the rebel-held northwest.
Turkish officials say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east. In Syria, people were killed as far south as Hama, 250 km from the epicentre.
Many people in Turkey and Syria spent a third night sleeping outside or in cars in freezing winter temperatures, their homes destroyed or so shaken by the quakes they were too afraid to re-enter.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless in the middle of winter. Many have camped out in makeshift shelters in supermarket car parks, mosques, roadsides or amid the ruins, often desperate for food, water and heat.
At a gas station near the town of Kemalpasa, people picked through cardboard boxes of clothes dropped off as donations.
In the port city of Iskenderun, Reuters journalists saw people huddled round campfires on roadsides and in half-crushed garages and warehouses. The only lights were the spotlights focused on cranes trying to remove slabs of debris.
Authorities say some 6,500 buildings in Turkey collapsed and countless more were damaged in the quake zone where some 13 million people live.
A Turkish official said the disaster posed “very serious difficulties” for the holding of an election scheduled for May 14 in which President Tayyip Erdogan has been expected face the toughest challenge in his two decades in power. With anger simmering over the slow delivery of aid and delays in getting the rescue effort underway, the disaster is bound to play into the vote should it still go ahead.
SLEEPING BY THE ROADSIDE
Turkey’s AFAD disaster agency set up meeting points for people left homeless and wanting to be evacuated from the area. More than 28,000 people have been brought out so far, it said.
In Maras, people camped inside a bank, taping a sheet in the window for privacy. Others had set up on the grass median of a main road, heating instant soup on fires and wrapping themselves in blankets.
In Antakya, some 30 tents erected by the Turkish Red Crescent in a park were all packed.
Many people spent the night in their cars. Few petrol stations had fuel and kilometers-long queues stretched at those that did.
In the devastated Syrian town of Jandaris, Ibrahim Khalil Menkaween walked in the rubble-strewn streets clutching a folded white body bag. He said he had lost seven members of his family including his wife and two of his brothers.
“I’m holding this bag for when they bring out my brother, and my brother’s young son, and both of their wives, so we can pack them in bags,” he said. “The situation is very bad. And there is no aid.”
BAREFOOT, BRUISED
There were still some signs of hope. Turkish footage late on Wednesday showed a few more survivors being rescued, including Abdulalim Muaini, who was pulled from his collapsed home in Hatay, where he had remained since Monday next to his dead wife.
Rescue workers dug out an injured 60-year-old woman named Meral Nakir from the rubble of an apartment block in the city of Malatya, 77 hours after the first quake struck, state broadcaster TRT showed in live coverage on Thursday.
Barefoot and her faced bruised, Nakir was wrapped in a blanket and carried to a waiting ambulance.
Many in Turkey have complained of a lack of equipment, expertise and support to rescue those trapped – sometimes even as they could hear cries for help.
Further slowing the relief effort, the main road into Antakya was clogged with traffic as residents sought to leave the disaster zone and aid trucks headed in.
After facing criticism over the initial response, Erdogan said on a visit to the disaster zone on Wednesday operations were now working normally and promised no one would be left homeless.
Nevertheless, the disaster will pose an additional challenge to the long-ruling president in the election.
SYRIA OVERWHELMED
In Syria, relief efforts are complicated by a conflict that has partitioned the country and wrecked its infrastructure. The first United Nations convoy carrying aid to northwest Syria since the quake crossed from Turkey on Thursday, witnesses and a border official said.
El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the senior UN aid official in Syria, said 10.9 million people had been affected by the catastrophe.
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday admitted the government lacked capability and equipment, blaming more than a decade of civil war and Western sanctions.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has chaired emergency meetings on the earthquake but has not addressed the nation in a speech or news conference.
PINOY RESCUED, 4 MISSING
A Filipino earthquake victim in Turkey has been rescued and is now safe but three to four others who live in the same building as the rescued one are still missing, said Cherilyn Santos, a leader of a Filipino community in Ankara, told TV and radio interviews.
There are 248 Filipinos in the quake-hit areas.
The Philippine Embassy in Turkey has so far confirmed that two Filipinos were hurt in the quake but they have recovered. It said it has received reports of Filipinos in “varying degrees of distress” while a number have yet to be contacted.
It said its team evacuated four Filipinos from Adana to safer areas in the city of Mersin.
The embassy said it has already kicked off its relief operations in the earthquake-hit southeastern parts of Turkey with the assistance of local authorities. The team has distributed relief goods to Filipinos, including food, blankets, water, and cash in the cities of Adana and Iskenderun, the latter being one of the most devastated area in the province of Hatay.
“The Embassy will continue to extend its utmost efforts to reach the 248 Filipinos in the affected regions, as listed in the Embassy consular records. We recognize that this is a meticulous process that may require more than a few days,” it said.
It said that Filipinos who are affected by the earthquake and in need of assistance may reach the embassy via telephone and WhatsApp at +905345772344, via email at ankara.pe@dfa.gov.ph and its Facebook account www.facebook.com/PHinTurkey.
An 82-man team of rescuers from the Armed Forces, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Department of Health, and Office of Civil Defense landed in Istanbul on Thursday, part of the growing international coalition of rescuers sent to assist in search and rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria.
The Philippine response team will be deployed in Adana City, which is south of Istanbul, said Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, spokesman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRMC).
“There are 18 buildings that collapsed there (in Adana)… Our USAR (urban search and rescue) team is capable of doing collapse structure search and rescue,” he said.
Alejandro said the NDRRMC is preparing another contingent in case there is a need to extend the mission beyond the initial 14-day target.
He also said the NDRRMC is evaluating whether to send a similar team to Syria, noting that Syrian government officials have also requested the Philippine government for help.
“Of course, we can either send another contingent or send donation, relief items… There is still no decision but we have already received, through the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs), a similar call from Syria, so we are evaluating,” he said. — Reuters, Ashzel Hachero and Victor Reyes
