Temperatures dropped to around freezing overnight, making matters worse for those trapped and people who lost their homes and belongings.
Screams of anguish from people still buried in the rubble filled the night from Monday to Tuesday, as relatives could not hold back tears and fear for their loved ones, hours after the death toll from the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria passed 3,800. and concerns are being expressed that it will continue to increase rapidly in the coming hours and days.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the two countries in the early hours of Monday brought down apartment buildings complete like towers of cards, destroyed hospitals, injured and left thousands homeless.
Beneath a shapeless mass of rubble in the southern province of Hatay, a woman’s voice pleads for help. A short distance away, the lifeless body of a small child.
Sobbing as freezing rain falls, Denise wrings her hands, searching for words to express her despair.
“They are making noises, shouting — no one is coming. We are lost. We were destroyed. My God… They cry, they say ‘save us’, but we cannot save them. How will we save them? No one has come since morning.”
Temperatures dropped to around freezing overnight, making matters worse for those trapped and people who lost their homes and belongings.
In Kahranmarmaras, north of Hatay, families huddle around open fires and wrap themselves in blankets trying to keep warm.
“As soon as we got out of the house,” says Nesset Guler, with his four children around him, near one of the fires. “We were devastated. We are hungry, we are thirsty…”
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by a series of strong aftershocks, was the strongest recorded by the USGS since August 2021 on a global scale.
In Turkey, the provisional death toll has reached at least 2,379 dead, according to data released by Vice President Fuat Oktay late last night. It is already before 24 hours have passed for the deadliest disaster the country has experienced since the 1999 earthquake, which left behind at least 17,000 dead.
Another nearly 15,000 people were injured.
In Syria, at least 1,444 people were killed and about 3,500 wounded, according to figures released by authorities in Damascus and aid and relief organizations in the northwest, which controls rebels and jihadists.
A lack of internet connectivity and damage to the roads connecting some of the hardest-hit cities in southern Turkey, with a combined population of millions, have hampered efforts to accurately assess and manage the damage.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is facing elections in May, spoke of a historic disaster and assured that the authorities are doing everything they can, everyone is “putting their heart and soul”, as he said. He clarified that 45 countries offered to help in search and rescue operations.
In Iskenderun, members of rescue crews are carefully climbing the giant pile of rubble that until early yesterday was the intensive care unit of a public hospital. They are looking for survivors.
Standing in front of the hospital, Thulin, a nurse, almost monologues: “we admitted a patient into surgery yesterday… we don’t know what happened.” She wipes her tears.
In Syria, the earthquake struck areas already facing massive destruction after nearly 12 years of war. Fuel shortages and a harsh winter make response efforts even more difficult.
“Infrastructure has been damaged, roads that we used to deliver aid have been damaged, we have to be creative to reach the affected people (…) but we are trying hard,” summed up El Mustafa Benlamli, the UN coordinator, via video link from Damascus.
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