Antioch: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan He vowed to press on with more than a week of rescue and recovery efforts after a powerful earthquake struck his country and neighboring Syria, with an elderly woman being the latest pulled from the rubble.
The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria has exceeded 41,000, and many survivors are enduring near-freezing winter temperatures, left homeless by the devastation in cities in both countries.
“We will continue our work until we remove the last civilian left under the collapsed buildings,” Erdogan said late Tuesday after a cabinet meeting at the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) headquarters.
He said damage assessment of buildings, thousands of which were destroyed, would be completed in a week and reconstruction would begin within months.
“We will rebuild all homes and workplaces that have been destroyed or become uninhabitable EarthquakeAnd hand them over to the rightful owners,” he said. More than 105,000 people were injured in the quake, he said, with more than 13,000 still undergoing hospital treatment.
Media reports said a 77-year-old woman named Fatma Gungor was pulled alive overnight from the rubble of a seven-storey apartment block in Adiyaman city, some 212 hours after the first quake.
Footage from state broadcaster TRT showed Gungor, dressed in an oxygen mask, covered in a gold foil blanket and strapped to a stretcher, being carried by rescue workers down the ruins of the building to a waiting ambulance.
Afterwards, relatives of Gungor embraced the rescue team, which was made up of military personnel and members of the disaster management authority AFAD.
Nine other survivors were rescued in Turkey on Tuesday as the focus of the aid effort shifted to helping those who are now struggling without shelter or enough food in the cold.
Erdogan has acknowledged that there were problems with the initial response to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6, but said the situation was now under control.
“We are facing one of the biggest natural disasters not only in our country but also in the history of mankind,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan said more than 2.2 million people had already left the worst-hit areas, and hundreds of thousands of buildings were uninhabitable.
Those rescued on Tuesday included two brothers, aged 17 and 21, who were pulled from an apartment block in Kahramanmaras province, and a Syrian man and a young woman in leopard-print headscarves in Antakya.
UN officials have said the rescue phase is drawing to a close, with the focus now on shelter, food and schooling.
“People are suffering a lot,” said refugee Hasan Saimoua, who lives with his family in a playground in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. We applied to get a tent, aid or something, but so far We haven’t received anything.” ,
Saimoua and other Syrians took refuge in Gaziantep from the war at home. Now, rendered homeless by the quake, they have put up makeshift tents at the playground using plastic sheets, blankets and cardboard.
“The needs are enormous, growing by the hour,” said Hans-Henry P. Kluge, the World Health Organization’s director for Europe. “Around 26 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in both countries.”
“There is also growing concern over emerging health issues related to cold weather, sanitation and hygiene, and the spread of infectious diseases – with vulnerable people particularly at risk.”
‘Dad, aftershock!’
Families in both Turkey and Syria said they and their children were dealing with the psychological aftermath of the earthquake.
“Whenever he forgets, he hears a loud sound and then he remembers,” said Hassan Moaz of his 9-year-old in Aleppo, Syria. “When he’s sleeping at night and hears a sound, he wakes up and tells me: ‘Daddy, aftershock!'”
The first UN aid convoy entered rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey through the recently opened Bab al-Salam crossing.
The head of the White Helmets’ main rescue group, Raed al-Saleh, said the search for survivors was nearing an end in Syria’s northwest.
Russia also said it was completing its search and rescue operations in Turkey and Syria and preparing to withdraw.
Erdogan said the death toll in Turkey stood at 35,418. More than 5,814 people have been killed in Syria, according to reports by Syrian state media and a UN agency.
Survivors join a mass exodus from the disaster area, leaving their homes and unsure whether they can ever return.
Hamza Bekri, a 22-year-old Syrian, has lived in Antakya, southern Turkey, for 12 years, having fled conflict in his homeland, but was now preparing to follow his family to Isparta in southern Turkey.
The bakery said, “It is very difficult… We will start from zero, without goods, without jobs.”
The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria has exceeded 41,000, and many survivors are enduring near-freezing winter temperatures, left homeless by the devastation in cities in both countries.
“We will continue our work until we remove the last civilian left under the collapsed buildings,” Erdogan said late Tuesday after a cabinet meeting at the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) headquarters.
He said damage assessment of buildings, thousands of which were destroyed, would be completed in a week and reconstruction would begin within months.
“We will rebuild all homes and workplaces that have been destroyed or become uninhabitable EarthquakeAnd hand them over to the rightful owners,” he said. More than 105,000 people were injured in the quake, he said, with more than 13,000 still undergoing hospital treatment.
Media reports said a 77-year-old woman named Fatma Gungor was pulled alive overnight from the rubble of a seven-storey apartment block in Adiyaman city, some 212 hours after the first quake.
Footage from state broadcaster TRT showed Gungor, dressed in an oxygen mask, covered in a gold foil blanket and strapped to a stretcher, being carried by rescue workers down the ruins of the building to a waiting ambulance.
Afterwards, relatives of Gungor embraced the rescue team, which was made up of military personnel and members of the disaster management authority AFAD.
Nine other survivors were rescued in Turkey on Tuesday as the focus of the aid effort shifted to helping those who are now struggling without shelter or enough food in the cold.
Erdogan has acknowledged that there were problems with the initial response to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6, but said the situation was now under control.
“We are facing one of the biggest natural disasters not only in our country but also in the history of mankind,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan said more than 2.2 million people had already left the worst-hit areas, and hundreds of thousands of buildings were uninhabitable.
Those rescued on Tuesday included two brothers, aged 17 and 21, who were pulled from an apartment block in Kahramanmaras province, and a Syrian man and a young woman in leopard-print headscarves in Antakya.
UN officials have said the rescue phase is drawing to a close, with the focus now on shelter, food and schooling.
“People are suffering a lot,” said refugee Hasan Saimoua, who lives with his family in a playground in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. We applied to get a tent, aid or something, but so far We haven’t received anything.” ,
Saimoua and other Syrians took refuge in Gaziantep from the war at home. Now, rendered homeless by the quake, they have put up makeshift tents at the playground using plastic sheets, blankets and cardboard.
“The needs are enormous, growing by the hour,” said Hans-Henry P. Kluge, the World Health Organization’s director for Europe. “Around 26 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in both countries.”
“There is also growing concern over emerging health issues related to cold weather, sanitation and hygiene, and the spread of infectious diseases – with vulnerable people particularly at risk.”
‘Dad, aftershock!’
Families in both Turkey and Syria said they and their children were dealing with the psychological aftermath of the earthquake.
“Whenever he forgets, he hears a loud sound and then he remembers,” said Hassan Moaz of his 9-year-old in Aleppo, Syria. “When he’s sleeping at night and hears a sound, he wakes up and tells me: ‘Daddy, aftershock!'”
The first UN aid convoy entered rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey through the recently opened Bab al-Salam crossing.
The head of the White Helmets’ main rescue group, Raed al-Saleh, said the search for survivors was nearing an end in Syria’s northwest.
Russia also said it was completing its search and rescue operations in Turkey and Syria and preparing to withdraw.
Erdogan said the death toll in Turkey stood at 35,418. More than 5,814 people have been killed in Syria, according to reports by Syrian state media and a UN agency.
Survivors join a mass exodus from the disaster area, leaving their homes and unsure whether they can ever return.
Hamza Bekri, a 22-year-old Syrian, has lived in Antakya, southern Turkey, for 12 years, having fled conflict in his homeland, but was now preparing to follow his family to Isparta in southern Turkey.
The bakery said, “It is very difficult… We will start from zero, without goods, without jobs.”