By Athena Papakosta

Stories from small miracles that as time goes by, they get bigger and filled our computer and mobile screens for one more day.

It is about those people who came back to life full of dust with bewildered looks as if they had forgotten to look in the light of day. At the same time, however, tens of thousands are the dead who are still lying in the ruins of their past lives.

Entire cities were flattened and in their place were bent iron and mountains of rubble. The tragic toll from the 7.8 and 7.7 magnitude earthquakes now exceeds 35,000.

According to the Turkish news network Haber Turk, if any of us were to walk in southern Turkey and look where until nine days ago there were buildings, today we will see signs on which the rescue teams have written “no one can be heard”.

This is a sign that there was a check and investigation operation but without any results.

According to the Associated Press news network in Antioch its reporters even noticed signs in the rubble with phone numbers written on them. They belong to relatives who have lost all hope and are now asking for their dead on the grounds that if the crews locate them then they will in turn be able to proceed with their burial.

Damage from last Monday’s double-killer strike is estimated at $84.1 billion. Damage clearly higher than the cost of that back in 1999.

The homeless it is more than a million in the country. Reports say that even the tents are not enough for everyone to find a temporary shelter. Citizens report that even four families sleep together in one tent in order to keep as few people as possible exposed to the cold temperatures.

Camps have been set up even in unaffected areas with around 150,000 survivors being moved to them. However, not everyone believes they can leave. Some don’t have the money and others want to stay behind.

Volunteers from all over Turkey, including restaurant owners and chefs, mobilized to help the millions of survivors. The Orthodox churches of the region, many of which have suffered serious damage, also participate in the solidarity race.

Experts insist. The window for additional miracles in the ruins is closing. They explain that even the odds are no longer on life’s side. They describe how in the rubble of the pitifully poorly constructed buildings that were flattened like paper towers in a fraction of a second there are not many large spaces in which people can continue to survive. Adverse weather conditions are also added to the equation.

The bitter cold is an obstacle as the human body in its attempt to warm itself consumes a lot of calories, which means that a person who has not eaten for so many days is led to death faster.

Ankara takes aim all those responsible for the construction of, for example, a housing complex. But citizens still have their anger directed against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

They insist that her reaction was delayed and that the overall handling of the emergency situation was inadequate and problematic. Their anger could be a political problem for the Turkish president, who is running for re-election in May and fears that it too will collapse like his country’s paper buildings.