The world is rallying to help Turkey and Syria after a devastating earthquake hit the region. Search teams and emergency aid have poured in from around the world as rescuers work in freezing temperatures to dig through the rubble of flattened buildings, often with their bare hands. The death toll has reached over 5,000 and is expected to rise.
The widespread damage has made the relief efforts challenging, with many devastated towns struggling to receive aid. Voices that were once crying for help have now fallen silent. Residents have been forced to recover bodies on their own, like Syrian Ali Silo, who heard the cries of his two relatives in the Turkish town of Nurdagi.
Monday’s earthquake caused destruction stretching hundreds of kilometers across southeastern Turkey and adjacent Syria, toppling thousands of buildings and adding to the region’s already heavy burden of a 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
Aftershocks continue to make the search efforts perilous, while the freezing temperatures make them more urgent.
The scale of the suffering and the rescue effort is staggering, with over 8,000 people pulled from the debris in Turkey alone and 380,000 seeking refuge in government shelters or hotels. People huddle in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques, and community centers, while others spend the night outside in blankets around fires. Social media has become a place for pleas for aid for loved ones believed to be buried under the rubble.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces to manage the response and says that 13 million of the country’s 85 million are affected in some way. The World Health Organization estimates that the entire quake-hit area could be as high as 23 million people. Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergency officer with the World Health Organization, says the situation is a crisis atop multiple crises in the region.
Thirty countries are rushing to help Turkey and Syria in the wake of a catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Teams from around the world are converging on the disaster zones. Turkey has stated that it will only allow aid vehicles into the worst-hit provinces of Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman, and Hatay in a bid to speed up the relief efforts. The UN says it is exploring all avenues to get aid to the rebel-held northwestern Syria, where millions of people live in extreme poverty and rely on humanitarian assistance.
Hatay province has been set up as a field hospital and tents for the homeless are being set up by the Turkish military. The defense minister announced that a humanitarian aid brigade and eight military search and rescue teams have been deployed. On Tuesday, a navy ship docked at the port of Iskenderun to transport survivors to a nearby city for medical care. Firefighters have not yet been able to control container fires at the port.
Medical personnel are working around the clock to treat the overwhelming number of wounded in northern Syria. Sebastien Gay, the head of Doctors Without Borders in the country, said the facilities struggle to keep up with the demand.
The affected area in Syria is split in two, with government-controlled areas and a last opposition-held enclave, surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey, and the rebel-held enclave is packed with 4 million displaced people. Erdogan has stated that Turkey’s total number of deaths has passed 3,500, with over 22,000 injured. In government-held areas, the death toll has climbed to over 800, with 1,400 injured, and in the rebel-held northwest, at least 800 have died, and over 2,200 are injured, according to the White Helmets.
Earthquakes frequently shake the region due to its location on top of major fault lines. In 1999, 18,000 people were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey. On Monday, the US Geological Survey measured the quake at 7.8, with a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles); shortly thereafter, another earthquake with 7.5 magnitude struck over 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
