Image: ZEIN AL RIFAI (AFP)
As the state news agency Anadolu, citing the Turkish civil protection authority Afad, reported on Thursday evening, the number alone is for them Turkey now at 17,134. 3,317 deaths were recently reported from Syria. Among the thousands of collapsed buildings, however, there are probably still tens of thousands of earthquake victims to be feared.
Around 70,000 people were injured in addition to the dead. After more than three days and the guideline value of 72 hours, which a person can actually get by without water at most, the hope of further survivors faded, even if there were isolated reports of people rescued after more than 80 hours.
According to experts, the number of dead after the earthquake catastrophe could increase significantly. Fast projections based on empirical damage models predicted up to around 67,000 fatalities, said Andreas Schäfer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on Thursday.
The bitter cold in the region and the political situation in civil war-torn Syria further exacerbate the situation. A first aid convoy from the United Nations reached the rebel areas there on Thursday. Activists in Syria reported that the aid shipments were planned before the earthquake and were only held up by it. Urgently needed equipment for the rescue teams in Syria has therefore not arrived – instead goods such as detergent. “This is very disappointing and shameful,” said the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, the dpa.
Political situation makes help difficult
The already difficult situation for rescue workers and aid supplies is made even more difficult in Syria by the politically sensitive situation. The disaster area there is divided into Damascus-controlled areas and rebel-controlled areas. Aid supplies can only get through an open border crossing from the Turkey to the affected areas in the north of the country – and until now it had been feared that ruler Bashar al-Assad would only allow deliveries to areas under his government’s control.
UN Secretary-General calls for more border crossings to be opened
In view of the earthquake victims in north-west Syria, who are difficult to reach, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for further border crossings to be opened Turkey. “We need massive support and so obviously I would be very happy if the Security Council could reach a consensus to allow more crossings to be used as we also need to increase our capacity,” Guterres said in New York on Thursday.
Three days after the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the full extent of the destruction cannot be predicted. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 23 million people could be affected by the aftermath of the earthquake. Above all, she fears that the return of cholera a few months ago in the civil war in Syria could now expand into an epidemic.
Freezing temperatures
Rescue workers in both countries tried desperately to find possible survivors while the temperatures remained freezing. But the search is becoming more and more of a race against time. From the experiences of past catastrophes it is known that after about 72 hours the probability of finding survivors drops dramatically. That period of time passed Thursday morning. “The number of dead and injured is likely to rise sharply because many families are still under collapsed buildings,” said the head of the rescue services in north-west Syria, Raed Saleh, the news agency Reuters. The rescue remains a challenge because of the lack of equipment. “We are missing the essentials. We need big cranes to clear large chunks of (debris). We need heavy equipment to deal with this tragedy,” said Munir Mustafa, deputy head of the White Helmets rescue organization. “We’re using our hands and shovels to clear the debris.
At the beginning of March, the EU wants to hold a donor conference for Syria and the Turkey hold In a letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, the EU heads of state and government assured Ankara that they would further increase their support.
Activists reported that after the quake, no relief supplies were found, but bodies of Syrians were found instead Turkey being transported across the border. In the Turkey millions of Syrian refugees live there. The Syrian border authorities published photos of minibuses from which body bags are transferred to vehicles. In north-west Syria alone, an estimated 11,000 people were left homeless by the disaster.
Many people are still missing under the rubble in both countries. Alone in the Turkey more than 6,000 buildings collapsed. Nevertheless, there are still small reports of success: German and British helpers freed a mother and her six-year-old daughter from the rubble of a collapsed house in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras on Thursday night. Mother and child were located in the rubble of the house. Baum reported that the helpers from @fire and the British organization Saraid had worked their way through the rubble for almost 20 hours. At sub-zero temperatures, mother and child threatened to freeze to death.
Numerous rescue workers from Austria are also in the Turkey in action. The Austrian aid contingent has already rescued three people from the rubble after the devastating. That said spokesman Pierre Kugelweis, who is deployed with the special unit in the hard-hit Hatay province, on Thursday of the APA. But the 85 soldiers are running out of time. “We have 100 hours to get as many people as possible out of the rubble,” said Kugelweis in the morning. The soldiers were on duty on Thursday at two collapsed houses where dogs had struck. Knocking noises could also be heard from a basement. The rescue workers tried to locate survivors.
In the Turkey Dissatisfaction with disaster management is growing, which could also have an impact on the presidential and parliamentary elections planned for May 14. Doubts were raised as to whether the vote could take place at all. President Erdogan had the parliament in Ankara confirm the earthquake-related state of emergency for three months on Thursday. The decree was published in the Official Journal – the state of emergency is now in force. The measure covers the ten provinces that were also hit by the earthquake.
Erdogan had said that the state of emergency would also help to take action against those who “create discord and discord”. For example, there was looting that could now be prevented. Erdogan had already announced the state of emergency on Tuesday. According to the state news agency Anadolu, the state of emergency in the regions concerned can oblige public institutions, organizations or “legal and natural persons” in the region to hand over equipment, land, buildings, vehicles or medicines, for example.
Source: Nachrichten
