Earthquake in Turkey: Nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people, Turkey’s disaster agency announced that rescue efforts have ended in all but two provinces.
The head of the agency said that searches will continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay.
On Friday, survivors were still being rescued from the rubble, but there are fewer and fewer chances of finding anyone else alive.
On Sunday, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Turkey. Prior to the catastrophe, he had made plans for his trip.
On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaras as its epicenter. It is confirmed that over 44,000 people died in northern Syria and south-eastern Turkey.
The death toll is expected to rise as more people are still missing and around 345,000 apartments in Turkey have been destroyed. Syria and Turkey have not disclosed the number of missing individuals.
“Search and rescue efforts have been completed in many of our provinces,” Yunus Sezer, the chief of the disaster agency, told reporters in Ankara.
He stated that search and rescue efforts were ongoing at approximately forty buildings in the two provinces, but that he anticipated that this number would decrease by Sunday evening.
More than 11 days after being trapped by the earthquake, rescue workers pulled at least three people from the rubble on Friday.
Despite the fact that the trip was planned prior to the earthquake, Mr. Blinken has arrived in Turkey to show his support. Since he became president more than two years ago, this will be his first trip to Turkey.
Before meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, he will visit humanitarian efforts in Hatay. The two are expected to talk about things like Sweden’s ratification by Turkey and Finland’s applications for NATO membership.
According to the head of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, rescue efforts are likely to come to an end on Sunday evening.
After this month’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) reports that search and rescue efforts have ended in the majority of provinces nearly two weeks later.
In a press conference on Saturday, AFAD chief Yunis Sezar stated, “The death toll due to the earthquakes rose to 40,642 and the work of searching and rescue for people stuck under the debris has ended in most of the provinces.”
Keep reading for a list of three items: list 1: Earthquake death toll in Syria and Turkey surpasses 46,000 list 2: Doctors rush to Turkey’s quake-hit areas to strengthen the health system list 3: Ghanaian footballer Atsu’s body found under Turkey’s quake rubble list 4: “We believe we will end the search and rescue operations by tomorrow night,” he added.
On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southeast of Turkey and Syria, causing more than 45,000 deaths, rendering more than a million people homeless, and causing an estimated billion-dollar economic loss.
[Bulent Kilic/AFP] “We are in front of perhaps the biggest disaster we have faced in history. As they take a break from working on the removal of the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras on February 18, 2023, people warm up next to a fire.” More than 5,700 earthquake and aftershock-related damages were not limited to the 11 provinces that were impacted, Sezar stated.
Over 5,800 deaths in Syria have been reported, most of them in the northwest. For several days, the number has remained constant.
Humanitarian assistance is needed by approximately 26 million people in both Turkey and Syria, according to the World Health Organization.
Another “miracle” rescue occurred on Saturday in Antakya, Turkey, twelve days after the earthquakes. Rescue workers from Kyrgyzstan rescued five members of a Syrian family from the rubble of a building.
A child was one of the three people rescued. According to the rescue team, the mother and father both survived, but the child later succumbed to dehydration. A twin and an older sister were unable to make it.
When we were digging an hour ago, we heard shouts. According to the Reuters news agency, a member of the rescue team, Atay Osmanov, “We are always happy when we find people who are alive.”
In order to facilitate the rescue efforts, ten ambulances waited on a nearby street that was closed to traffic.
As the teams climbed onto the rubble of the building where the family was found to use an electronic detector to listen for any additional sounds, workers asked for complete silence and instructed everyone to crouch or sit.
Despite the fact that they had been trapped for such a considerable amount of time beneath the rubble in subzero temperatures, teams have been searching for survivors throughout the entire week. However, their numbers have decreased to just a few in the recent days.
Sinem Koseoglu of Al Jazeera reported from Ankara that many survivors hoped the search and rescue efforts would last longer.
Some people didn’t hear from their family. They are unsure whether they are still alive, deceased, or in the hospital. They don’t know anything,” she continued.
As a result of damage to sanitation infrastructure and a lack of clean water in many stricken communities, health officials are concerned about the potential spread of infection. Aid bottlenecks and health concerns The damage is immense on both sides of the border.
Aid groups and health professionals have expressed concern that the earthquake damage will exacerbate the cholera outbreak that was declared in Syria at the end of last year.
Doctors on the ground cite the lack of clean water, unsafe sanitation, and overcrowding in shelters as dangers that could lead to the spread of disease as health concerns on the Turkish side as well.
The only UN-approved land crossing into this opposition-controlled region where a number of armed groups at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are active, aid convoys had to wait three long days after the earthquake to navigate damaged Turkish roads and pass through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The United Nations has since expressed regret for the delay and begun making use of two additional land crossings from Turkey into northern Syria.
The World Food Programme (WFP) stated that authorities in the northwest were preventing access to the area, but there appear to be additional obstacles.
That is preventing us from moving forward. On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, WFP Director David Beasley told Reuters that that needs to be fixed right away.
According to sources familiar with the plan, Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, is expected to visit Turkey and meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The United States has provided Turkey with a search and rescue team, medical supplies, concrete-breaking equipment, and additional $85 million in humanitarian aid that includes Syria since the earthquake.
