(The view of the affected buildings in Adana, Turkey. Image credit: Reuters)
Southeast Turkey and northern Syria were hit by a major 7.8 earthquake on Monday. Turkey’s disaster management agency has raised the official death toll from Monday’s quake to 17,200 people. The mixed total, with the 2,500 deaths recorded officially in Syria, has attained 19,200 making it the deadliest seismic experience in over a decade.
Search operations are still on to find more survivors and help the injured as the death toll passed 20,000 from the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, Associated Press reported. The probe prevails amidst freezing weather and multiple aftershocks that have hindered the rescue efforts, despite international relief from several countries including India.
The cause why Turkey’s earthquake proved to be so destructive is because the east Anatolian Fault is a strike-slip fault where solid rock plates are pushing up against each other across a vertical fault line below the earth’s exterior, creating tension until one ultimately slips in a horizontal motion thus occurring in an earthquake which is an abrupt movement of Earth’s cover at a fault line.
The Associated Press reports state that in Gaziantep in Turkey, shops are shut and there’s no heat because gas lines have been stopped to avert explosions. Finding petrol was difficult. About 100 people covered in blankets slept in the lounge of an airport terminal, it reported.
The combined death toll in the Turkey and Syria earthquake crossed 20,000 by Thursday evening, as hundreds of thousands have been left homeless by the catastrophe. Several people killed in both countries are anticipated to keep rising as anger thrives in Turkey over the slow reaction from the authorities. Desperation and wrath accumulate in search for survivors.
Here are some of the international aid undertakings being sent for the Turkey-Syria earthquake:
(Image credit: The Washington Post)
The European Union has united search and rescue teams to help Turkey, while the bloc’s Copernicus satellite system has begun to deliver emergency mapping services. At least 19 member countries have offered contributions.
The US is organizing rapid assistance to Turkey, including teams to help search and rescue efforts. In California, nearly 100 Los Angeles County firefighters and structural engineers, along with six specially trained dogs, have been carried to Turkey.
Russia has brought a rescue team to Syria, where the Russian military deployed in that nation already had sent ten units involving 300 people to assist clear rubble and searching for survivors. The Russian military has set up junctures to allocate humanitarian assistance. Russia also has requested help from Turkey, which has been approved.
Israel’s army is taking a search and rescue team of 150 engineers, medical personnel, and other aid workers to provide lifesaving aid in Turkey. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has also accepted a request for humanitarian aid for Syria. Although Syria and Israel have no conventional diplomatic connections.
A squad of 82 rescuers sent by China has entered Adana, Turkey. They include experts in search and rescue as well as medical treatment, and they fetched 21 tons of rescue supplies and equipment.
Greece, Lebanon, Germany, South Korea, Algeria, Japan, the UK, and Australia are among many other countries to send or promise assistance.
Turkish firefighters try to extinguish the fire at the quake-hit port of Iskenderun which had been moving for two days. Containers grabbed fire when they were overturned by the quake on Monday.
Despite the significance of every minute, no rescue team came to parts of the city of Gaziantep for the critical first 12 hours after the crisis on Monday, urging victims’ relatives and local police to clear the ravages by hand, observers said.
(Image credit: The Economic Times)
And when the rescuers eventually arrived on Monday evening, they only worked for a few hours before leaving for the night, residents complained. They revolted on Tuesday morning and the police had to interfere. Recounted a senior citizen, whose brother and nephews continued to be trapped in the debris.
In the unbearable cold, survivors are trying to warm themselves around a fire they lit in the open air, not far from their destroyed houses. They revolted that the government rescue team had no idea what the people had gone through.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan toured the town of Pazarcık, near the epicenter of the quake, and the worst-hit territory of Hatay on Wednesday stated to the Associated Press.
Nearly two days after the magnitude 7.8 quake struck south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 9,000 people till Tuesday. Search crews from more than two dozen countries have joined the Turkish emergency workers, and aid pledges have been pouring in.
“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad condition. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold,” Aysan Kurt, 27, told the reporters. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
In Syria, aid undertakings have been thwarted by the ongoing war and the seclusion of the rebel-held province along the border, which is confined by Russia-backed government forces.
The latest death toll from Monday’s catastrophic earthquake stands at 8,704. On Wednesday morning, Syria’s death toll climbed to 2,470, and 6,234 in Turkey. The numbers are expected to go on to increase during the day as more debris is uncovered.
Turkey’s disaster agency announced around 40,000 people had been injured, adding that more than 100,000 personnel were engaged in search and rescue endeavors.
More than 18,000 people so far have been pulled from the rubble in Turkey, said the Turkish vice-president, Fuat Oktay.
(Image credit: CNN)
Numerous survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside, or, in government asylums. About 380,000 people have taken refuge in government havens or hotels, with others snuggling in shopping malls, mosques, community centers, and stadiums.
On Tuesday afternoon, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan notified a disaster zone in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquakes, committing a state of emergency in the territory for three months.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said it had 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 had been verified. On Monday night, the ministry of transport and infrastructure said that about 3,400 people took protection in trains being used as emergency lodging.
In Turkey, anger is growing over what was interpreted as a sluggish and insufficient response by the government. Several countries have sent emergency aid and search and rescue services already.
Syria was blamed for playing politics with aid after the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said his country should be accountable for the release of all aid into Syria, including those regions not controlled by the Syrian government.
Three British nationals are missing after the earthquake, the UK’s foreign secretary told on Tuesday. Four Australians are without any trace following the quakes. Australia’s foreign affairs department is giving consular relief to the families of the nationals who were near the tragedy and to about 40 other Australians and their families who were present in the area.
Satellite images broadcasted by Maxar Technologies provide an idea of the scale of the challenge for emergency staff over the coming days. They exhibit in vivid detail the range of the destruction that has unraveled in towns, villages, and cities across the territory.
(Image credit: The Los Angeles Times)
The United Nations asserts to explore all routes to get supplies to rebel-held northwestern Syria, and it released $25 million from its emergency fund to assist with humanitarian aid in Turkey and Syria.
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