Gaziantep, Turkey — More than 17,000 people were killed by a series of devastating earthquakes and aftershocks that struck Turkey and Syria more than three days ago. On Thursday, rescuers retrieved more survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings, but expectations were fading that they would discover many more.
IHA stated that emergency teams working through the night in the city of Antakya were able to rescue a small child from the wreckage of a building and her father two hours later.
As they prepared to load the father into the ambulance, they informed him that his daughter was still alive and that he would be taken to the same field hospital for treatment.
He softly muttered “I love you all,” to the rescue team.
The DHA news agency said that in the early morning hours in Diyarbakir, east of Antakya, rescuers extricated one injured woman from the rubble of a fallen building but found three bodies close to her.
However, according to experts, the window of opportunity for survival for those trapped under the wreckage or otherwise unable to get basic supplies was swiftly closing. In addition, they stated that it was premature to relinquish hope.
“The first 72 hours are considered to be critical,” said Steven Godby, an expert on natural disasters at Nottingham Trent University in England. “The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%.”
Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reported 14,014 deaths and over 67,000 injuries in his country. On the Syrian side of the border, 3,577 deaths and over 6,300 injuries have been reported, bringing the total number of deaths in the two nations to 17,591.
Risklayer, a “transparent and independent collaborative catastrophe risk firm in Germany and Australia,” tweeted on Wednesday that it expects the number of fatalities to exceed 45,000.
It is estimated that tens of thousands have lost their homes. Former tenants of a collapsed building in Antakya wrapped themselves in blankets and crowded around an outdoor fire overnight and into Thursday in an attempt to remain warm.
Serap Arslan stated that several people, including her mother and brother, remained buried beneath the debris of the adjoining building. Wednesday was the first day that equipment began to move some of the heavy concrete, she said.
The 45-year-old stated, “We tried to clear it by our own means, but unfortunately we are very inadequately” prepared for the task.
Selen Ekimen wiped away tears with her gloved hands as she stated that her parents and brother were still interred.
She stated that there had been “no sound from them for days,” “None.”
Erdogan was due to visit to the quake-affected regions of Gaziantep, Osmaniye, and Kilis on Thursday, despite persistent criticism that the government’s response has been too tardy.
According to the crisis management organization, more than 110,000 rescue people and over 5,500 vehicles, including tractors, cranes, bulldozers, and excavators, have been sent to the affected area.
As a result of the earthquake, thousands of buildings have collapsed, making the effort Herculean.
Erdogan, who faces a difficult reelection struggle in May, recognized flaws with the emergency response to Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake, but attributed them to the winter cold. In addition to destroying the runway at Hatay’s airport, the earthquake severely hampered the response.
Erdogan stated, “It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster,” “We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for.” In response to critiques, he stated that “dishonorable people” were disseminating “lies and slander” about government actions.
Access to Twitter in Turkey has been limited, despite the fact that it was used by survivors to alert rescuers, the internet monitoring organization NetBlocks reported on Wednesday. However, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday night that “Twitter has been informed by the Turkish government that access will be reenabled shortly.”
On Thursday, NetBlocks tweeted that “Twitter access is being restored in #Turkey after hours of filtering. The reinstatement occurred after officials met with Twitter to “remind Twitter of its responsibilities” regarding material removal and disinformation.”
The calamity strikes at a difficult moment for Erdogan, who is facing an economic recession and high inflation. Perceptions that his government mishandled the situation could be detrimental to his standing. He stated that the government would provide impacted households with 10,000 Turkish lira ($532)
Local emergency personnel has been joined by teams from more than two dozen countries. But the harm caused by the earthquake and its accompanying aftershocks was so extensive and widespread that many people were still waiting for assistance.
According to Reuters and Agence France-Presse, the first convoy transporting humanitarian aid into Syria after the earthquakes passed the Turkish border on Thursday. Later, however, the Syrian Observatory said that “Turkish-backed factions” obstructed the convoy. Since March 2011, the observatory based in the United Kingdom has been reporting on the Syrian civil war.
Hundreds of Afghans, including women and children, rushed to the airport in Kabul following the spread of a false report that flights were departing for Turkey to assist earthquake victims. Earlier, U.N. special envoy Geir Pedersen stated that the Syrian portion of the quake zone need “more of absolutely everything.”
Abdul Ghafar, a 26-year-old native of Kabul, stated, “heard that Turkey is taking out people, so I thought I can go and help people in need,” adding, “Also this can be an opportunity for me to find a way out of the country.”
Ghafar waited three hours in the freezing weather near the airport before returning home after being informed by Taliban fighters that such flights to Turkey did not exist.
The border region between Turkey and Syria was already plagued by the Syrian civil war. Millions of Syrians have been displaced, and millions more have sought asylum in Turkey.
Aid operations in Syria have been impeded by the ongoing civil conflict and the isolation of the rebel-held border region, which is encircled by government forces supported by Russia. Syria is a worldwide pariah due to war-related Western sanctions.
The death toll has now surpassed that of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal in 2015, when 8,800 people perished. Japan’s 2011 earthquake generated a tsunami that killed approximately 20,000 people.
»Death toll from earthquakes surpasses 17,000 as rescue chances diminish«
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