NURDAGI, Turkey – Rescuers raced against time to pull survivors from the rubble early Wednesday before freezing weather struck southern Turkey and war-torn northern Syria two days after an earthquake struck. The death toll climbed above 7,700 and was expected to rise further.
The past two days have brought dramatic rescues, including small children who were pulled from mounds of rubble more than 30 hours after Monday’s pre-dawn quake. But there was also widespread frustration and anger over the slow pace of rescue efforts in some areas.
“It’s like we woke up to hell,” said Osman Can Taninmis, whose family members were still under the rubble in Turkey’s worst-affected province of Hatay. “We absolutely cannot respond to anything. Help is not coming, cannot come. We cannot reach anyone at all. Everywhere is destroyed.
In Syria, residents found newborn baby crying Still connected by umbilical cord to his mother, who was dead. Relatives told The Associated Press that the child was the only member of his family to survive a building collapse in the small town of Jindris.
Search teams and aid have been pledged from nearly 30 countries, including from israel, South Korea, Spain, Greece, Lebanon and Germany. The United States, China and Gulf countries have also sent help, and relief supplies have begun to arrive by air, along with search teams.
The European Union also mobilized search and rescue teams to help Turkey, while the bloc’s Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services. The European Commission is also helping neighboring Syria by funding humanitarian organizations overseeing search and rescue operations.
A baby girl who was born under rubble caused by an earthquake in Syria and Turkey receives treatment inside an incubator at a children’s hospital in Afrin, Aleppo province, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Residents in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying baby whose mother gave birth to him while this week’s devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor say, was buried under the rubble of a five-story apartment building. (AP/Gath AlSayed)
But with damage spread across many cities and towns – some isolated by Syria’s ongoing conflict – cries for help fell silent from within the pile of rubble.
Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake and powerful aftershocks cut through a swath of destruction that stretched hundreds of kilometers (miles) across southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. The tremors toppled thousands of buildings and heaped more misery on a region wracked by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the war. The affected area in Syria is split between government-controlled areas and the country’s last opposition-held enclaves, where millions of people depend on humanitarian aid to survive.
Unstable piles of metal and concrete made search efforts dangerous, while the freezing temperatures made them more urgent, as concerns grew about how long those trapped in the freezing cold might last.
Snow has fallen around rescue teams in parts of Turkey.
Israel’s first Delegation of 150 military rescue experts They arrived in southern Turkey early Tuesday to begin rescue operations in the Adana and Gaziantep regions.
Channel 12 reported Tuesday night that Israeli experts rescued three people from the rubble, but it was not clear where.
Another Israeli Defense Force delegation of medical and logistics corps soldiers was due to leave for Turkey on Wednesday morning set up a field hospital, The IDF said the delegation would include about 230 people, including search and rescue specialists, military doctors and health ministry doctors, nurses and paramedics.
‘A crisis on top of many crises’
The scale of the suffering – and the accompanying rescue effort – has been staggering.
Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergency official at the World Health Organisation, said as many as 23 million people could be affected across the quake-hit region, calling it a “crisis on top of many crises”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million people had been affected, and declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. Officials said more than 8,000 people had been evacuated from the rubble in Turkey and some 380,000 had taken shelter in government shelters or hotels.
Rescuers search for survivors of a collapsed building in Malatya, Turkey, Tuesday, February 7, 2023. Search teams and aid are being rushed to Turkey and Syria as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dig through the remains of buildings damaged by the 7.8 magnitude quake. , (AP/Imrah Gurel)
But officials have faced criticism from residents of severely affected Hatay, which is trapped between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea, who say rescue efforts have lagged behind. Erdogan’s handling of the crisis could have a huge impact on elections due in May, and his office has already dismissed criticism as misinformation.
Nurgul Atay told The Associated Press that she could hear her mother’s voice under the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province. But rescuers did not have the heavy equipment needed to rescue him.
“If we could only lift the concrete slab, we would be able to reach it,” she said. “My mother is 70 years old, she won’t be able to take it for long.”
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,647 people had died in Hatay alone, the highest figure for any Turkish province. He said that till Tuesday evening at least 1,846 people had been rescued from there. Hatay’s airport was closed after the earthquake destroyed the runway, complicating rescue efforts.
Aid to Syria hampered by war, division
Meanwhile, in Syria, aid efforts have been interrupted by the ongoing war and the isolation of rebel-held territory along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions tied to the war.
People remove furniture and household appliances from a collapsed building after a devastating earthquake in the city of Jindris, Aleppo province, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP/Gaith Alsayed)
Volunteer first responders known as White Helmets have years of experience rescuing people from buildings destroyed by Syrian and Russian airstrikes in the rebel-held enclave, but they say the earthquake overwhelmed their abilities Is.
Mounir al-Mustafa, deputy head of the White Helmets, said they were able to respond efficiently to up to 30 locations at a time, but are now facing calls for help from more than 700 people.
“Teams are present at those places, but the machinery and equipment available are not sufficient,” he said, adding that the first 72 hours were crucial for any rescue effort.
The UN said it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies into the rebel-held northwest.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the road leading to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing – the only terminal through which UN aid is allowed to enter rebel-held territory – was damaged by the earthquake, preventing delivery Got interrupted.
Dujarric said the UN was preparing a convoy to cross the conflict line inside Syria.
The United Nations is already providing aid in areas of conflict held by rebels. But it cannot move the quantities needed because of the difficulty in arranging convoys with opposing sides, making aid deliveries from Turkey crucial.
IDF search and rescue teams begin work to find survivors after the earthquake that struck Turkey on February 7, 2023. (foreign Ministry)
The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad has for years pressed that all humanitarian aid be routed from within Syria, including through opposition-held enclaves. The UN has increased cross-conflict line deliveries but not enough for the millions in need.
Turkey has a large number of troops in the border area and has tasked the army with assisting its rescue efforts, including setting up tents for survivors and a field hospital in Hatay province.
A navy ship stopped on Tuesday at the port of Iskenderun province where a hospital had collapsed, to move people in need of medical care to a nearby town.
A large fire at the port caused by containers being overturned during the quake sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky. The Defense Ministry said the fire was extinguished with the help of military aircraft, but live footage broadcast by CNN Turk showed the fire was still burning.
Vice President Fuat Octoy said at least 5,894 people were killed in the earthquake in Turkey, while another 34,810 were injured.
Emergency team members search for people at a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, February 7, 2023. (AP/Francisco Seco)
According to the health ministry, the death toll in Syria’s government-controlled areas has risen to 812 and some 1,400 people have been injured. At least 1,020 people have been killed in the rebel-held northwest, while more than 2,300 have been wounded, according to the White Helmets.
The region lies on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.
In 1999, similar powerful earthquakes struck northwest Turkey, killing about 18,000 people. The country’s last 7.8-magnitude quake occurred in 1939, when 33,000 people died in eastern Ergincan province.
Experts have long warned that a major earthquake could devastate Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with dilapidated homes.