Fears are mounting for countless people buried by Turkey’s earthquake

NURDAGI, Turkey (AP) – Rescuers raced against time early Wednesday to pull survivors from the rubble before succumbing to cold weather two days after an earthquake struck southern Turkey and war-ravaged northern Syria. The death toll rose to over 7,700 and should continue to rise.

The past two days have seen dramatic rescues, including young children, who emerged from piles of rubble more than 30 hours after Monday’s predawn tremor. But there was also widespread despair and growing anger at the slow pace of rescue efforts in some areas.

“It’s like we woke up from hell,” said Osman Can Taninmis, whose family members were still lying under the rubble in Hatay, Turkey’s hardest-hit province. “We can’t answer anything at all. Help doesn’t come, can’t come. We can’t reach anyone at all. Everywhere is destroyed.”

In Syria, local residents found a crying newborn baby still attached to her dead mother by the umbilical cord. The baby was the only member of her family to survive a building collapse in the small town of Jinderis, relatives told The Associated Press.

Search teams from nearly 30 countries and pledges of aid flocked. But with the damage spreading across several cities and towns – some isolated by the ongoing conflict in Syria – the voices calling for help from piles of rubble fell silent.

Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor and strong aftershocks carved a path of destruction stretching hundreds of kilometers (miles) through southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. The tremor collapsed thousands of buildings and brought more misery to a region ravaged by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.

Turkey is home to millions of war refugees. The affected area in Syria is divided between a government-controlled area and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, where millions depend on humanitarian aid to survive.

Unstable piles of metal and concrete made search efforts dangerous, while freezing temperatures made them increasingly urgent as concerns grew over how long trapped survivors could survive in the cold. Snow swirled around rescuers in parts of Turkey.

The scale of the suffering – and the accompanying rescue efforts – was overwhelming.

Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergency official at the World Health Organization, said up to 23 million people could be affected across the quake area, calling it a “crisis within multiple crises”.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million people were affected and he declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. More than 8,000 people were pulled from the rubble in Turkey and about 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, authorities said.

However, authorities have been criticized by residents of hard-hit Hatay, which is sandwiched between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea, who say rescue efforts have lagged behind. Erdogan’s handling of the crisis could weigh heavily on elections scheduled for May, and his office has already dismissed the criticism as disinformation.

Nurgul Atay told The Associated Press she could hear her mother’s voice under the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Antakya, capital of Hatay province. But rescuers didn’t have the heavy equipment to save them.

“If we could just lift the concrete slab, we could reach them,” she said. “My mother is 70 years old, she won’t be able to stand it for long.”

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,647 people had been killed in Hatay alone, the highest death toll of any Turkish province. At least 1,846 people had been rescued there by Tuesday evening, he said. Hatay Airport was closed after the quake destroyed the runway, complicating rescue efforts.

In Syria, meanwhile, relief efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.

Volunteer first responders known as the White Helmets have years of experience rescuing people from buildings destroyed by Syrian and Russian airstrikes in the rebel-held enclave, but they say the earthquake overwhelmed their skills.

Mounir al-Mostafa, the deputy head of the White Helmets, said they have been able to respond efficiently to up to 30 locations at once, but are now facing calls for help from more than 700.

“Teams are present at these locations, but the machines and equipment available are insufficient,” he said, adding that the first 72 hours are crucial for any rescue operation.

The United Nations said it was “exploring all avenues” to bring supplies to the rebel-held northwest.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the road leading to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing – the only terminal through which UN aid is allowed to enter rebel-held territory – was damaged by the quake, disrupting supplies.

Dujarric said the UN is preparing a convoy to cross the lines of conflict inside Syria. But that would likely require the approval of President Bashar Assad’s government, which has besieged rebel-held areas during the civil war.

Turkey has large numbers of troops in the border region and has tasked the military with helping its rescue efforts, including setting up tents for the homeless and a field hospital in Hatay province.

A Navy ship docked at the port in Iskenderun province on Tuesday, where a hospital collapsed to transport survivors in need of medical care to a nearby town.

A major fire at the port caused by overturned containers during the earthquake sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky. The Department of Defense said the fire was put out with the help of military aircraft, but live footage broadcast by CNN Turk showed it was still burning.

Vice President Fuat Oktoy said the earthquake in Turkey killed at least 5,894 people and injured another 34,810.

The death toll in government-held areas of Syria has risen to 812, with around 1,400 injured, according to the health ministry. According to the White Helmets, at least 1,020 people have died and more than 2,300 have been injured in the rebel-held Northwest.

The region lies on major fault lines and is frequently rocked by earthquakes. About 18,000 people died in 1999 in similarly powerful earthquakes in north-west Turkey.

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Alsayed reported from Azmarin, Syria. Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok, Zeynep Bilginsoy and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, and Riazat Butt in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Mehmet Guzel, Ghaith Alsayed and Suzan Fraser, The Associated Press

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