Humanitarian organizations are requesting reinforcements to step up the search for survivors after 72 hours of rescue.
Rescue teams in Turkey and Syria continued working around the clock yesterday to rescue survivors trapped in the rubble of Monday’s powerful earthquake, which has already killed more than 15,000 people.
For two days and nights after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit, thousands of first responders worked in sub-zero temperatures to find survivors under collapsed buildings on both sides of the border.
Head of the Turkish Red Crescent Society Kerem Kinnik warned that the first 72 hours would be critical for the rescue operation, but said it was hampered by “bad weather”.
Still, paramedics were able to save several children who were found yesterday under a collapsing block in Turkey’s Hatay province, where an entire town was wiped out.
“Suddenly I heard voices. Immediately I heard three voices at the same time,” said lifeguard Alperen Cetinkaya. “We expect a lot more from them[…]the potential to bring people back to life here is very good,” he added.
Pain echoes in Turkey and Syria.
The provisional balance of the tragedy is already 15,383 dead.
The death toll has reached 12,391 in Turkey, where seven days of mourning and a three-month state of emergency were declared in the worst-hit provinces, authorities said.
The balance has reached 2,992 deaths in Syria, a country plagued by more than a decade of civil war, according to the balance of Damascus government and civil protection teams in rebel areas.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said time was running out with thousands of injured and missing in the rubble.
Collapsed buildings in Turkey are being searched for victims.
“Where is the state?”
As time goes on, so does frustration and anger at the meager aid reaching some areas located in hard-to-reach areas or affected by geopolitical conflicts in the area.
During a visit to Hatay province yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged the “deficiencies” in the country’s response to the earthquake, saying it was “impossible to prepare for such a catastrophe”.
In this context of criticism of the government, Twitter was inaccessible on major mobile phone providers.
“Where’s the country? Where’s he?”
A Syrian man searches for 30 relatives.
Over the past two days, Malik Ibrahim has spent time clearing rubble in his northern Syrian village, searching for 30 relatives buried under the ruins.
At this time, with the help of neighbors and a rescue team, he has already managed to remove ten corpses from the ruins of the town of Vesnaya, near the Turkish border. The landscape contrasts with the tranquility of the neighboring olive groves.
“Twenty people remain under the rubble.
Many Syrian refugees in Turkey have lost their homes and families.
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In the most affected areas of Turkey, shops were closed, gas pipes were cut so there was no heating, and oil was difficult to find.
Institutions Complicate Support
Syrian UN coordinator El Mostafa Benramli told the rebels: “Put politics aside and let the humanitarian mission go.”
1.- Tasks
The earthquake has increased the challenges posed by humanitarian organizations to assist Syrians, especially in rebel areas of Idlib.
2.- At the mercy of the regime
This is premised on the regime authorizing the delivery of supplies to residents of insurgent areas and the belligerents reaching an agreement for distribution.
3.- Broken Pedestrian Bridge, Turkey
According to the United Nations, almost all of the humanitarian aid directed at rebel areas came from Turkey through the earthquake-affected Bab Al Hawa crossroads.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
