A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in early February killed tens of thousands of people, flattened streets and turned an area already grappling with a crisis. refugees and more than a decade of war, turned into a monumental recovery effort.
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As of February 10, the total number of deaths in Syria and Turkey is pass 22,000. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said more than 19,000 people have died in his country; in Syria, the death toll reached nearly 3,400, according to the Syrian Ministry of Health.
Thousands of buildings have destroyed or become unstable, leaving a staggering number of people without shelter in the rain and snow, and temperatures often falling below freezing. According to aid agencies, millions of people are in need of aid; In Syria alone, the United Nations said the quake affected 10.9 million people.
In the freezing cold, rescuers pulled thousands of survivors out of the rubble, but experts say the chances of rescuing more people are significantly reduced a few days after the quake.
The situation for survivors in both Syria and Turkey is dire, with those unwilling to return to their homes and use bonfires of ruins to keep warm, huddled in cars and often lost power and lacked fuel. They also face shortages of food and medical supplies.
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Turkey has imposed a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces, and the national emergency agency deployed more than 92,000 tents, 98,000 Turkish and foreign workers and 5,000 vehicles, including excavators, cranes and trailers. Dozens of countries have sent teams and supplies, and in some places, local governments have contributed to rescue and relief efforts.
Deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6 with its epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century.
The earthquake zone in Turkey stretches for more than 200 miles, from the Mediterranean in the south through the mountains and to the east-central plateau and into northwestern Syria. Snow-covered mountains, precarious highways and collapsed buildings on the roads all delayed the arrival of rescue and aid teams.
Helping Syria has been complicated by the country’s protracted civil war, the division of territory in the northwest, and the acrimonious relationship between President Bashar al-Assad and many Western nations.
Syrian border
Immediately after the earthquake, the only UN-approved crossing point to transport international aid into northwestern Syria, for a time, inactive because of damage in the areaaccording to UN officials.
But relief convoys quickly began carrying food, clothing, blankets and other necessities – received by the rescuers and the doctors were exhausted and frustrated who say it’s still not enough, especially in an area where Many people have been displaced by war and struggle to survive before the earthquake.
Much of Syria’s international aid from the United Nations and other agencies flows through the capital, Damascus, allowing President Bashar al-Assad’s government to limit what goes to opposition-held areas. UN agencies must be allowed to then move some aid across the front lines, to areas held by the opposition, requests that are often denied.
United Nations officials said they were in talks with the Syrian government to make more deliveries, and the European Union said it would also work with the United Nations to provide aid.
The Syrian government blames US sanctions for deepening the humanitarian disaster the country has suffered since the earthquake. Those sanctions are not aimed at humanitarian aid, and the State Department has reject calls to pick them upsaid aid efforts should not be hindered by this policy and that Mr. al-Assad’s government should open more border crossings.
Earthquake
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which occurred in the early morning hours of February 6, has now become Turkey’s earthquake. The deadliest earthquake since 1939when more than 30,000 people were killed, and among world’s most dangerous for many decades.
A 7.5 magnitude aftershock follows the quake and experts warn that more aftershocks are possible — posing risks to the structural integrity of unstable structures in earthquake zones.
Turkey’s two main fault zones, East Anatolia and North Anatolian, make it one of the most seismically active areas around the world, and more than 70 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 or greater have been recorded in the area since 1900.
The epicenter of the earthquake was near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, where about half a million Syrian refugees live and most of the city is in ruins. Much of Antakya, the capital of the Turkish province of Hatay – known as Antioch to the ancient Greeks and Romans – was destroyed, with whole neighborhood in ruins, including the oldest part of the city. Rebuild cities, if possible, it will take many yearsat least a decade, experts say.
Report contributed by Vivian Yee, Ben Hubbard, Cora Engelbrecht, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Gulsin Harman, Safak Timur, Kim Yu Young, Raja Abdulrahim, Frozen Natasha, Mike Ives, Hwaida Saad, Henry’s Fountain And Alan Yuhas.
