Over 11,000 people are confirmed dead as of Wednesday as massive earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, destroying countless homes and other buildings. Sky News reported that Turkey’s disaster management agency estimated over 8,500 casualties in that country alone as of Feb. 8, while the Syrian Health Ministry estimated over 2,600 dead and tens of thousands more are injured in both countries.
Sky News said on Feb. 8 that the earthquake is the “deadliest since a 2011 earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is supposed to visit the “worst-hit” Turkish province of Hatay and the earthquake epicenter Pazarcik on Wednesday. Due to the ongoing Syrian war and the rebel-held border region, relief efforts there are sadly being hampered.
The Independent reported on Feb. 7 that as many as 20,000 could be killed in the earthquake and that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 23 million people in Syria and Turkey could be affected directly, including 1.4 million children. The Independent emphasized how bad the weather is for standing outside, which many are doing as they are afraid to remain in whatever buildings are left due to the aftershocks of the first huge 7.8 magnitude earthquake and the 7.5 magnitude quake that almost immediately followed. Sky News said the temperatures in Turkey were below freezing.
Many in Turkey have been forced to stay in tents, cars, mosques, malls, or government shelters, but some have nowhere to go. ”We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold,” Sky News quoted 27-year-old Turk Aysan Kurt. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
Many hospitals and shelters in Syria were already overwhelmed with millions of displaced people and areas were already wrecked by military bombardment before the earthquakes, The Independent noted, due to the war, making the disaster there even worse.
An unknown number of people have been trapped in the rubble of buildings, desperately calling out or sending phone messages for help. In Antakya, Turkey, near the Syrian border, a woman cried for help from under a rubble heap as a local resident stood in the rain, weeping and wringing his hands. “They’re making noises but nobody is coming,” the local man said. “We’re devastated, we’re devastated. My God… They’re calling out. They’re saying, ‘Save us’ but we can’t save them. How are we going to save them? There has been nobody since the morning.”
Unfortunately, many children have been buried under the rubble too. Some were rescued, including three-year-old Arif Kaan and 10-year-old Betul Edis in Turkey. A newborn baby “still connected by the umbilical cord to her deceased mother” was rescued in a northern Syrian town, Jinderis, on Monday. The baby miraculously survived after her entire family was killed in a building collapse.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member