Race against time in Turkey and Syria as hopes fade for quake survivors

Nurdagi, Turkey: Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkey and Syria on Tuesday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug – often with their bare hands – through the remains of buildings flattened by two powerful earthquakes on Monday.

The death toll had soared to more than 5300 by the time night fell and was expected to continue to rise.

Emergency teams worked through night and day in search of survivors in Adana, TurkeyCredit:AP

With the damage spread over a vast area, the massive relief operation struggled to reach devastated towns and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent. The rescue operation in many areas was turning from rescue to recovery.

“We could hear their voices – they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdagi.

In the end, it was left to Silo, a Syrian who arrived from Hama a decade ago, and other residents to recover the bodies and those of two other victims.

The first quake on Monday was registered at 7.8 and resulted in a wave of strong aftershocks, including a second quake that came in at 7.5.

A man carries a young survivor who was found in a collapsed building Hatay, Turkey.Credit:Getty Images

The destruction stretched for hundreds of kilometres across south-eastern Turkey and into neighbouring Syria, toppling thousands of buildings and heaping more misery on a region already affected by Syria’s 12-year civil war and the refugee crisis it triggered.

Unstable tangled piles of metal and concrete made the search efforts perilous, while freezing temperatures added extra urgency as concerns grew about how long those trapped could survive.

The scale of the suffering was staggering.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 8000 people had been pulled from the debris in Turkey alone, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, said Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay. They huddled in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres, while others spent the night wrapped in blankets as they gathered around fires outside.

Many took to social media to plead for assistance for loved ones believed to be trapped under the rubble. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Interior Ministry officials as saying all calls were being collected and the information relayed to search teams, but the scale of the task at hand was incomprehensible.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million citizens were affected in some way. He declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces.

Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organisation, estimated that some 23 million people were affected across both Turkey and Syria.

Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the Syrian civil war. The affected area in Syria is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, where millions live in extreme poverty and rely on humanitarian aid to survive.

The devastation extends for kilometre after kilometre.Credit:Getty Images

The United Nations said aid to refugees had been temporarily stopped, leaving aid workers grappling with the problem of how to help people in a country fractured by war.

Teams from nearly 30 countries around the world were headed for the region. Turkey said it would only allow vehicles carrying aid to enter the worst-hit provinces of Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman and Hatay in order to accelerate the effort.

The United Nations said it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to rebel-held north-western Syria. Sebastien Gay, the head of mission in the country for Doctors Without Borders, said health facilities were overwhelmed and that medical personnel were working around the clock to help the wounded.

Nurgul Atay, who lives in the Turkish city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, said she could hear her mother’s voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building, but that her efforts to clear the ruins had been futile without heavy equipment.

“If only we could lift the concrete slab we’d be able to reach her,” she said. “My mother is 70 years old, she won’t be able to withstand this for long.”

But help did reach some.

In the north-western Syrian town of Jinderis, a newborn girl was pulled alive from the wreckage of a collapsed building. A rescuer cradled her head in his hands and tenderly wiped dust from around her eyes as she lay amid crushed concrete and twisted metal.

The infant’s mother had given birth while buried under the rubble of the five-storey apartment block, relatives and a doctor said. The baby’s umbilical cord was still connected to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who had died.

Makeshift hospitals

Turkey has large numbers of troops in the border region with Syria and has tasked the military with aiding the rescue efforts, including setting up tents for the homeless and a field hospital in Hatay province.

A navy ship docked on Tuesday at the province’s port of Iskenderun, where a hospital collapsed, to transport survivors in need of medical care to other locations. Rescue teams and survivors peered through the twisted remains of the hospital, searching for signs of life. There was little in the debris to suggest the building was a busy medical facility less than two days before.

Earthquakes are not unfamiliar to rescue teams here. The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by quakes. Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit north-west Turkey in 1999. Even so, seasoned emergency personnel have been shocked by the destruction.

One of the hospital’s surviving doctors, who identified himself only as Dr Deveci, said he found the scene at his workplace hard to believe. “I’m devastated. I see bodies inside, everywhere. Although I’m used to seeing bodies because of my expertise, it’s very difficult for me,” he said.

Taxi driver Kerim Sahin was among those looking for friends in the ruins of the hospital. “Nobody can go near the building – only one cabinet is supporting the third floor,” he said.

AP with Reuters

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