Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: The extent of the disaster is not yet foreseeable

The situation in Turkey and Syria continues to be dramatic. More than 5000 people died in the earthquake – many are still missing. Aid is coming slowly. The weather complicates the rescue work.

The number of victims in the earthquake areas on the Turkish-Syrian border is still increasing. The full extent of the catastrophe cannot yet be foreseen, and many people are still suspected to be under the rubble.

The total number of dead is now more than 5,000. According to previous information, more than 23,500 people were injured in southern Turkey and northern Syria. Thousands of buildings collapsed.

According to the civil protection authority Afad, there have been at least 3,419 fatalities and more than 20,000 injured in Turkey. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said around 8,000 people had been rescued from the rubble. According to this, people were still being rescued alive more than 20 hours after the first tremor. However, the chances are dwindling with every passing minute.

Storm in Syria makes rescue difficult

So far, 1,604 deaths have been counted in Syria, according to the Ministry of Health and the rescue organization White Helmets. More than 3,600 people were injured.

According to the UN, people in Syria who were already living without protection under disastrous conditions are the most affected by the consequences of the earthquake. Many internally displaced people who lived in ramshackle shelters before the disaster had to spend the night outside in snow and freezing temperatures, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR said. “With the many aftershocks and tremors, people were afraid to stay in their homes.”

Hundreds of families are still believed to be under the rubble. The overnight search was slow due to the storm and a lack of equipment, according to the White Helmets, who are active in rebel-held areas of Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, doctors are also overwhelmed and cannot save the lives of all those injured.

According to the UNHCR, some of the affected areas are remote and difficult to access. Among other things, there is not enough emergency shelter, blankets and warm clothing for the earthquake victims.

Turkey: Power outages and food shortages

According to government estimates, millions of people in Turkey have been affected by the earthquake disaster. “This earthquake directly affected 13.5 million of our citizens,” said City Minister Murat Kurum.

In Turkey, too, people are suffering from the destroyed infrastructure. Some roads and paths are not accessible, and work is being done to make them passable again, says Kurum. In some regions there is no water, efforts are being made to repair damage as quickly as possible and to provide people with water.

The power went out in Hatay in southern Turkey, an eyewitness reported to the dpa news agency. Help is urgently needed. The petrol stations ran out of petrol and there was no bread to buy. The electricity also failed in the neighboring province of Osmaniye, said a reporter from the broadcaster CNN Türk.

In the southeastern Turkish metropolis of Diyarbakir, many people spent the night outside, in schools or mosques – for fear of returning to their homes. There were several aftershocks. The rescue work is made more difficult by the wintry temperatures. The tents of the civil protection authority Afad are not heated and are not sufficient, according to the dpa.

Weather service: cold and snow expected

Temperatures will remain low in the coming days. The Turkish weather service has forecast snow and rain for the areas affected by the earthquake. Snow is expected in the southeastern provinces of Mardin and Diyarbakir. It is supposed to rain in the provinces of Malatya and Hatay. Winds could reach up to 50 kilometers per hour.

It is expected to be coldest in the province of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the quake. The lowest temperature to be expected there for Tuesday is five degrees minus, the highest one degree.

International aid started

Both Turkey and Syria have received numerous pledges of aid. The EU countries want to coordinate with each other. Aid pledges also came from Great Britain, India, Pakistan, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, which had been attacked by Russia, and the USA.

The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) is preparing to deliver emergency generators, tents and blankets, announced Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

One of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake is the rebel-held Idlib region of Syria. That should make emergency government aid there more difficult. After more than eleven years of civil war, government troops of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad are again in control of around two-thirds of the country.

No comparable earthquake in the region for 900 years

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 shook the Turkish-Syrian border region on Monday. At noon, another earthquake of magnitude 7.5 followed in the same region, as the Kandilli earthquake station reported. More than 240 aftershocks have followed so far.

The geologist Charlotte Krawczyk said there hadn’t been an earthquake of this size in the affected area for around 900 years Geo Research Center Potsdam in the ARD. It is not possible to predict whether and when further major earthquakes will follow. Despite tensions with Turkey, Greece sent a rescue team with sniffer dogs to the earthquake area.