According to current government figures, more than 84,000 buildings have either collapsed or been badly damaged in Turkey alone. According to government information, 224,923 apartments have been destroyed, badly damaged or ready for demolition. This number could also rise significantly due to feared aftershocks. According to AFAD information, more than 4,700 aftershocks have been counted so far, around 40 of them with a magnitude of more than four on the Mercalli scale.
There is still no all-clear: On the contrary, Orhan Tatar, who is responsible for risk minimization at AFAD, warned on Friday of further earthquakes, some with a magnitude of more than five. This is “a very extraordinary situation,” as Tatar said.
Panic in Latakia
The aftershocks repeatedly cause panic among the already severely affected population. It was only on Thursday that people in Latakia, Syria, were fleeing their homes in panic after a 4.7 magnitude tremor. A dpa reporter reported on the spot that a building collapsed on Thursday after the renewed tremors. The coastal town was already badly hit by the first heavy earthquake. According to official figures, 140,000 people have lost their homes in the province controlled by the Syrian government.
Rescued alive from rubble after 278 hours
A week ago on Monday, a first earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 shook southeast Turkey at 2.17 a.m. (CET), followed hours later by a second severe earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6. Spectacular reports about late rescues of buried people are still going around the world.
In the city of Antakya, firefighters from Istanbul freed a 13-year-old man after 228 hours. A video shows Mustafa being brought out of the rubble on a stretcher. According to Turkish emergency services, a 17-year-old was rescued in Kahramanmaras 248 hours after the earthquake. According to the Anadolu news agency, a man was rescued alive from the rubble in Hatay province after around 278 hours.
Many people are now sharing wanted ads on social networks in the hope of finding their loved ones in hospitals. More than 13,000 injured are still being treated in hospitals but some are unidentifiable, a hospital worker in Adana said. In many places, the infrastructure for health care was severely damaged.
Over 36,000 dead in Turkey
The number of dead recovered from the rubble continues to rise sharply. According to AFAD, there are 36,187 actuated deaths in Turkey. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported 5,900 deaths in Syria. In addition, there is a worsening situation for many survivors: In some places in Turkey there is already no drinking water due to the destruction, as the head of the Medical Association (TTB) in Adana in southern Turkey, Selahattin Mentes, said according to dpa. The district of Nurdag in Gaziantep is affected.
Elsewhere, the tap water could possibly be contaminated by mixing with the sewage system. “We urgently need access to clean drinking water in the region and must establish hygiene. In addition, the garbage has to be disposed of.” Otherwise there is a risk of infectious diseases such as cholera. According to TTB information, there is a lack of chlorine tablets, portable toilets, cleaning products and vaccinations against tetanus and diphtheria in the region. The need for food, however, is currently covered.
1.6 million people in shelters
According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 1.6 million people are currently in emergency shelters and 600,000 people have been evacuated from the region. In many places there is a lack of temporary accommodation. In the city of Kirikhan and elsewhere, people are building makeshift tents and stoves from materials found in the rubble. The Turkish government also increased the number of provinces affected by the earthquake disaster from ten to eleven. On the instructions of the President, the eastern Turkish province of Elazig is now officially considered a disaster area.
Meanwhile, Arab media reported that many Syrians are leaving Turkey. Almost 1,800 people have returned to their homeland. A total of around 3.6 million people had fled from bombs and violence to the neighboring country in recent years. After the earthquake, however, many want to be with their families again, although the danger of war is far from over.
Quake ‘broke backs of Syrian people’
Meanwhile, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad announced in a cynical television speech that the consequences of the civil war that had been going on since 2011 had prepared the population for the earthquake. “The war, which drained resources and weakened capabilities, gave Syrian society the experience to deal with the earthquake.”
From the point of view of the Red Cross, the earthquake disaster in Syria probably robbed those affected of their last strength after a crisis in the civil war that had lasted for years. “She really broke the back of the Syrian people. I’ve heard from a lot of people that their spirits are broken,” said International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain, describing it as a “crisis after a crisis”.
Finally, for the first time since the severe tremor, new fighting has been reported from Syria. Syrian government forces shelled suburbs of the rebel-held town of Atareb, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. There are also clashes in Saraqeb and in the province of Hama. According to aid organizations, in the region badly hit by the quake, the quake relief is still starting very slowly.
