GAZIANTEP, 8 Feb: With hope fading to find survivors, stretched rescue teams toiled Wednesday in Turkey and Syria, searching for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake. The death toll passed 11,000 in the deadliest quake worldwide in more than a decade.
\nAmid calls for the Turkish government to send more help to the disaster zone, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan toured a \u201ctent city\u201d in hard-hit Kahramanmaras where people forced from their homes are living. He conceded shortfalls early on in the response but vowed that no one would \u201cbe left in the streets.\u201d
\nSearch teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel, and aid pledges have poured in from around the world. But the scale of destruction from the 7.8 magnitude quake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense \u2014 and spread so wide, including in areas isolated by Syria\u2019s ongoing civil war \u2014 that many are still waiting for help.
\nAt times rescuers were using excavators, at others they picked gingerly through debris to find survivors or the dead. With thousands of buildings toppled, it was not clear how many people might still be trapped underneath the rubble.
\nIn the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral vehicles to pick them up, according to former journalist Ozel Pikal who saw eight bodies pulled from the ruins of a building.
\nPikal, who took part in the rescue efforts, said he believed at least some of the victims froze to death as temperatures dipped to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 Fahrenheit).
\n\u201cToday isn\u2019t a pleasant day because as of today there is no hope left in Malatya,\u201d Pikal said telephone. \u201cNo one is coming out alive from the rubble.\u201d
\nRoad closures and damage in the region made it hard to access all the areas that need help, he said, and there was a shortage of rescuers where he was. Meanwhile, cold hampered the efforts of those who were there, including volunteers.
\n\u201cOur hands cannot pick up anything because of the cold,\u201d said Pikal. \u201cWork machines are needed.\u201d
\nThe region was already beset by more than a decade of civil war in Syria that has displaced millions in that country and left them reliant on humanitarian aid and sent millions more to seek refuge in Turkey.
\nTurkey\u2019s president said the country\u2019s death toll passed 8,500. The Syrian Health Ministry, meanwhile, said the death toll in government-held areas has climbed past 1,200, while at least 1,400 people have died in the rebel-held northwest, according to volunteer first responders known as the White Helmets.
\nThat brought the overall total to 11,000 since Monday\u2019s earthquake and multiple strong aftershocks. Tens of thousands more are injured.
\nA 2011 earthquake near Japan that triggered a tsunami left nearly 20,000 people dead.
\nSyrian officials said the bodies of more than 100 Syrians who died during the earthquake in Turkey were brought back home for burial. Mazen Alloush, an official on the Syrian side of the border, said 20 more bodies were on their way, adding that all of them were Syrian refugees who fled civil war.
\nMore than two days after the quake, concerns grew for those still trapped, though stories of rescues gave many hope. A crying newborn still connected by the umbilical cord to her deceased mother was rescued in Syria on Monday. In Turkey\u2019s Kahramanmaras, rescuers pulled a 3-year-old boy, Arif Kaan, from the rubble.
\n\u201cFor now, the name of hope in Kahramanmaras is Arif Kaan,\u201d a Turkish television reporter proclaimed as the dramatic rescue was broadcast to the country.
\nPolish rescuers told TVN24 that low temperatures were working against them, though two firefighters said that the fact that people were caught in bed under warm covers by the pre-dawn quake could help.
\nThe cold also made life miserable for those who lost their homes. Many survivors in Turkey have had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t have a tent, we don\u2019t have a heating stove, we don\u2019t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold,\u201d Aysan Kurt, 27, said. \u201cWe did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.\u201d
\nErdogan, on this tour of quake-hit areas, acknowledged that there were problems early on in the response but said it had improved.
\nHe said the government would distribute 10,000 Turkish lira ($532) to affected families.
\nThe quake comes at a sensitive time for Erdogan, who faces presidential and parliamentary elections in May amid an economic downturn and high inflation. Perceptions that his government mismanaged the crisis could severely hurt his standings.
\nKemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey\u2019s main opposition party, blamed the devastation on Erdogan\u2019s two-decade rule, saying he had not prepared the country for a disaster and accusing him of misspending funds. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAZIANTEP, 8 Feb: With hope fading to find survivors, stretched rescue teams toiled Wednesday in Turkey and Syria, searching for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake. The death toll passed 11,000 in the deadliest quake worldwide in more than a decade. Amid calls for the Turkish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}