SKAI tour to the flattened Alexandretta and the ruins of Agios Nikolaos: Street race for a plate of food and clothes

THE Alexandretta, the historic Mediterranean port, has been almost leveled by the fury of Enceladus. THE SKAI correspondent, Manolis Kostidisin a sensational trekking recorded the disaster at Greek Orthodox Church of Agios Nikolaosthe chaos in the streets but also the desperation of the residents, who crowd the restaurants to secure a plate of food.

Once bustling with life, now only dust, cracks and flooded streets.

The sea has entered the city. Actually here because of the earthquake there was a small tsunami (..) Here you see this building. I can’t cross here, the water level is at least 40-50 points”, he describes SKAI correspondent, Manolis Kostidis.

According to the report, they are trying to put out the fire on the third day. Buildings have fallen, cars are flooded and we understand that Turkey has a long way to go to heal its wounds from the earthquake.

Toils and toils of a lifetime became in an instant debris. Truck dropped some clothes as humanitarian aid. People pick whatever they can find.

“We find some food. We don’t have blankets. We’re getting cold,” says a resident of the area.

People are digging with rescue crews to find someone in the wreckage. Third day, relatives, friends are waiting for some pleasant news.

SKAI in the ruins of Agios Nikolaos

A large part of Agios Nikolaos has fallen. Massive damage. The bell tower remains. Unfortunately, the temple inside has collapsed. Orthodoxy has a strong presence in both Antioch and Alexandretta with tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians.

Fire pits have been set up in the area. The cauldrons are already boiling soups for the evening. All the Orthodox will distribute food to the entire neighborhood and to the Orthodox as many have been left homeless.

What is surprising is that he went to rob a supermarket and the police stopped the citizens.

Emeritus Professor Panagiotis Karydis is in the area to study the causes of the biblical disaster. Because of the dust, he speaks on SKAI 100.3 radio with difficulty.

“The damages are tragic, really. This is another size.. A city a big city of 30,000 inhabitants will be dead and I hope I am not wrong in my prediction. The climate is tragic. You see children, teenagers, girls crying black tears. The buildings were shaken by the earthquake as if we had put explosives in the foundations”, says Mr. Karydis.

In the rubble and ruins, where despair and death have nested, everyone is hoping for a miracle.

New miracle from EMAK: They freed a young woman after five hours of effort

One more person was found alive and managed to be retrieved from the ruins in Hatay by the members of the Greek rescue teams. It is about a young girl, Irene, who was trapped under a slab. The EMAK and EKAV rescuers fought for about ten hours to reach her and free her. According to what the representative of the Fire Department stated on SKAI 100.3 radio, John the Bakerimmediately after her release, the young lady said “thank you” in broken Greek to the Greek rescuers.

He emphasized that the biggest reward for the Greek rescuers was the thanks from the girl.

Afterwards, according to Mr. Artopoios, the Greek mission recovered from the scene a dead mother and her child whom she had crushed with her body.

According to what Mr. Artophios stated earlier, throughout the extrication operation, the girl was “hooked” by the hand of the Greek Firefighter, waiting patiently her salvation.

The EMAK men located Irene when they heard a voice during the search in the ruins of the specific building. With true self-sacrifice they began to search, as during the operation there were two strong aftershocks, and they managed to reach the point where they initially believed that the little child was alive who was under the body of his lifeless mother.

Eventually it was found that the child was unfortunately unconscious, while the voice was that of young Irene.

The Greek mission has so far rescued five (5) people alive and recovered five (5) people unconscious

The Greek Mission is assisting in Search and Rescue operations, to deal with the devastating consequences of the strong earthquake of February 6, 2023, in Southeast Turkey and Syria.

It has been operating since the early morning hours of February 7, 2023, in Hatay Province, north of the city of Antioch in Turkey.

From the start of operations until now:

five (5) people have been released alive as follows:

1. – one (1) man of about 50 years old (07-02-2023)
2. – one (1) minor girl of about 9 years old (07-02-2023)
3. – one (1) minor girl of about 7 years old (02-07-2023)
4. – one (1) boy aged about 17 (08-02-2023) and
5. – one (1) woman aged about 20 (08-02-2023)

while,

five (5) persons have been recovered unconscious as follows:

1. – one (1) minor girl of approximately three years (07-02-2023)
2. – one (1) man of about 40 years old (08-02-2023)
3. – one (1) boy about 17 years old (08-02-2023)
4. – one (1) infant approximately four months old (08-02-2023) and
5. – one (1) woman aged about 30 (08-02-2023)

Search and rescue operations continue.

The dead in Turkey and Syria exceeded 11,700 – They continue to pull alive from the rubble

There is no end to the tragedy in Turkey and Syria with the death toll from the deadly earthquake constantly rising. Speaking in Hatay province, near the epicenter of the two earthquakes, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the number of confirmed dead in Turkey had risen to 9,057, as Reuters points out.

Meanwhile, Syrian officials and a rescue team in rebel-held northwest Syria said the death toll there had risen to 2,662, bringing the total toll to 11,719.

The rescuers are fighting against time

Rescuers continue to search the wreckage for survivors. According to CNN Turk six people, including a child, were pulled out alive from the rubble 60 hours after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

The members of the Greek rescue teams tirelessly continue their work. Earlier, they spotted one more person alive and it is now a matter of time before they pull him out of the rubble in Hatay. It is about a 20-year-old girl, Irene, who is trapped under a slab and the rescuers of EMAK and EKAV have managed to reach her.

Also earlier today, rescuers in Syria managed to pull the father, son and daughter alive two days after the devastating earthquake.

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Survivors search for their dead relatives in parking lots and fields

At the same time, residents in the earthquake-stricken areas of Turkey are going to stadiums and parking lots in order to identify their own people who did not make it and were pulled dead by rescue crews from the debris.

The bodies of dozens of citizens are wrapped in blankets, tarpaulins and garbage bags and are waiting for someone familiar to identify them. More than 100 bodies have been piled up in the parking lot of the Hatay hospital near the city of Antakya (Antioch) in southern Turkey.

Bodybags pile up in Turkey with at least 11k dead after mega-quake ‘that MOVED country 10ft’… as Sun readers raise £250k – https://t.co/HMdq32CFd3 pic.twitter.com/OxSaygOjz4

— THELAPDROP (@thelapdrop) February 8, 2023

At the same time, in the city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the earthquake, another 100 bodies were placed in a field, where residents went for identification.

Some of the dead had tags with their personal information, others did not. Relatives who locate one of their own obtain a death certificate and burial permit from a prosecutor present at the scene and then transport the dead in their own vehicles.

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