The total number of deaths caused by the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria rose to 17,500 on Thursday (9), about 72 hours after the initial tremors. The expectation is that the number will only grow as the days go by, due to the delay in government responses to the disaster —the first few hours are considered crucial in catastrophes of this type.
In both countries, many spent their third night out in the open or sleeping in cars, fearing returning to their homes due to the risk of further landslides.
Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless, and the fact that the tremor struck at dawn makes the situation worse – several of the survivors fled their homes without adequate clothing for the cold, some without even putting on their shoes.
On a visit to Gaziantepe, one of the hardest-hit areas, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country’s death toll had reached 14,351. There are still 63,000 wounded. Figures indicate that this could be on track to be the biggest earthquake in the nation’s history – the previous record belonged to a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that left more than 17,000 dead as it shook Izmit, in the northwest.
Erdogan also updated the count of destroyed buildings to 6,400. He stated that the government plans to inaugurate new three- and four-story buildings in the region within a year.
In Syria, already devastated by nearly 12 years of civil war, the total number of deaths rose to 3,162 on Thursday, according to reports by the authorities in Damascus and rescue teams in rebel zones.
Humanitarian organizations hope to be able to send aid to the north of the country, dominated by jihadists and dissident rebels of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, from the border with Turkey on Thursday.
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