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Incredible rescue in earthquake zone

Four days after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people, emergency services pulled several mostly unharmed people from the rubble in a dramatic series of rescues in Turkey on Friday.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 Strike the border between Turkey and Syriain an area of ​​more than 13.5 million people, early Monday morning, hundreds of aftershocks were quickly followed by another quake nearly as strong.

Morgues and cemeteries were overwhelmed, and bodies lay wrapped in blankets, rugs and tarps in the streets of some cities.

Temperatures remain below freezing across large areas and many people have nowhere to go. The government distributed millions of hot meals and tents and blankets, but it still struggled to reach the many people in need.

Experts say those trapped can survive for a week or more, but the chances of finding survivors are fading in subzero temperatures. With the occasional discovery of a living human being, the focus began to shift to the demolition of dangerously unstable structures.

In addition, winter weather and damage to roads and airports are hampering the response of rescue workers.

In northwestern Syria, the first UN aid truck since the earthquake to enter rebel-controlled areas from Turkey arrived on Thursday, highlighting the difficulty of asking for help from people there.

on friday,

Mustafa Turan flew from Istanbul to his hometown of Adiyaman to check on relatives hours after the earthquake struck. He counted his 248 collapsed buildings between the airport and the city center.

Journalists said on Friday that 15 relatives had been killed and dozens of people were sleeping outside or in tents.

“At night around 4am, it got so cold that our drinking water froze,” he said.

Aftermath of deadly earthquake in Kahramammaras
A Turkish boy named Poylers, who survived the rubble after the deadly earthquake in Karamanmaras, Turkey, was carried into an ambulance on February 10, 2023.

Stringer / Reuters


Turkey’s disaster management agency said 18,342 people have been confirmed dead and nearly 75,000 injured in Turkey so far. The number of people left homeless has not been released, but officials say more than 75,000 survivors have fled to other states.

More than 3,300 people have been confirmed dead across the border in war-torn Syria, bringing the total death toll to over 21,700.

The US State Department confirmed Thursday that at least three Americans were among the dead in Turkey.Relatives and friends of his family of four in New York City told CBS New York Four died in Turkey. It’s unclear if any of his three mentioned by the State Department on Thursday are included.

Turkish engineers suggested that the scale of the devastation is partly explained by lax enforcement of building codes.The issue has been largely ignored, experts say. This is because tackling this problem is costly, unpopular, and inhibits a major engine of economic growth in the country.

Aftermath of deadly earthquake in Kahramammaras
A woman rests at the site of a collapsed building as the search for survivors continues after the deadly earthquake in Karamanmaras, Turkey, on February 10, 2023.

SUHAIB SALEM / Reuters


Before dawn, in Gaziantep, near the epicenter of the earthquake in Turkey, rescuers dragged Adnan Muhammad Kolkut out of his basement. The 17-year-old smiled at the crowd of his friends and relatives who chanted “Adnan, Adnan”, clapped and cried tears of joy as they were carried off onto a stretcher.

“Thank you for arriving,” he said, hugging his mother and others who crouched down to kiss and hug him as they were loaded into the ambulance. .”

Although trapped for 94 hours, he was not crushed and was forced to drink his own urine to quench his thirst.

“I was able to survive that way,” he said.

“I have a son just like you,” the rescue worker, identified only as Yasemin, told him after giving him a warm hug. I swear I didn’t. I was trying to kick you out.”

Dramatic rescues have been reported elsewhere, including in the city of Antakya, with crews rescuing a 10-year-old girl at night and on Friday. Elsewhere in the Hatay province of Iskenderun city, nine survivors were found trapped in a building on Friday.Six were saved and work is underway to reach out to others. was.

Turkey Syria Earthquake Building Code
Rescue workers search through the rubble of a destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey, on February 9, 2023. For years, Turkey has tempted its fate by not enforcing modern building codes and allowing, and in some cases encouraging, earthquake-driven real estate booms. experts say.

Khalil Hamra/AP


Elsewhere, in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, a woman was rescued more than 100 hours after the earthquake, while rescuers were still trying to reach her child.

The death toll from the quake, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dubbed the “catastrophe of the century,” surpasses an estimated 18,000, with more than 18,400 killed in the 2011 tsunami off Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. I’m here. He died in an earthquake near Istanbul in 1999.

Around 12,000 buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged in Turkey, according to Murat Kulm, Turkey’s Minister of Environment and Urban Planning.

Aerial footage from above Turkey’s seismic zone has revealed an entire neighborhood of twisted metal, crushed concrete, and skyscrapers reduced to bare electrical wires.

In Kahramanmaras, the city closest to the epicenter, a sports hall the size of a basketball court served as a makeshift morgue to collect and identify corpses.

Some in Turkey have complained about the government’s slow response. It’s a perception that could hurt President Erdogan, who faces a tough battle for re-election in May.

President Erdogan has been visiting the affected cities for the past two days.

With most of the Turkish media under government control, TV stations mostly focus on rescue efforts, with little coverage of the hardships suffered on the ground.

More than 120,000 rescue workers are currently involved in the effort, and more than 12,000 vehicles including tractors, cranes, bulldozers and excavators have been shipped, according to Turkey’s disaster management agency.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 95 countries have offered to help, and nearly 7,000 rescue workers have been dispatched to help.

Khaled Wasef contributed to the report

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-syria-earthquake-rescues-dwindling-hope/ Incredible rescue in earthquake zone

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