Kahramanmaras, Turkey
CNN
—
The body of a 4-year-old girl wrapped in a pink blanket was removed Wednesday from the remains of a building in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras. She is one of the latest young victims of Monday’s quake.
Elsewhere, an excavator exhumed the body of a man, believed to be a Syrian refugee in his 40s, who appeared to be on a mattress, like many who died after an earthquake struck around 4 a.m. it was done.
The room he was found in had a box of children’s toys and Barbie dolls. It was unclear if there were other people under the rubble.
In the building next door, which also collapsed, rescuers were digging in from above trying to reach one or two people who appeared to be alive. A generator was brought in to power the pneumatic hand drill. The man who instructed it cleaned up the debris with his bare hands.
He seemed to find signs of life under the rubble, but the rescue team said they still had a lot to do and sent out a waiting ambulance.
It’s been more than two days since a deadly earthquake and aftershocks rocked the city, but rescuers continued to search through the rubble, picking up speed with each passing day.
More than 15,000 people are now confirmed dead in southern Turkey and neighboring Syria.
Heavy equipment is increasingly being brought into areas where vigilant search parties had relied on their hands to dig through the rubble the day before. The risk posed to those trapped alive must be weighed against the possibility of surviving additional hours in the bitter cold.
The sounds of mechanical excavators can be heard here and there in the lower floors of the city, where the buildings are overwhelmingly old and severely damaged.
Some people are still being pulled out of the rubble alive, but in most cases, rescuers have recovered the bodies.
A man volunteering at one of Kahramammaras’ hospitals told CNN Wednesday that the morgue had 350 bodies that were not recovered by relatives because family members died.
As Turkey continues to be shocked and the death toll rises, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday arrived in the country’s southern Kahramanmaras region, the epicenter of Monday’s deadly earthquake, to wreak havoc on himself. I accepted.
Surrounded by officials, he visited an emergency relief area set up by AFAD, the country’s disaster management agency. Rows of glowing white tents, destined to house some of the thousands of homeless families, have been seen at sports stadiums.
On Wednesday morning, more troops arrived ahead of his visit, and the police presence also appeared to be reinforced.
In a television briefing from the relief center, Erdogan said the government’s goal was to rebuild the Kahramanmaras region “within a year” and people would receive emergency housing assistance.
“We can never let our citizens stay on the streets,” Erdogan said.
CNN captures the moment Turkish residents are rescued from the rubble
He acknowledged “there were some problems” with the government’s initial response regarding natural gas supplies and roads, but said the situation was “under control”. The government plans to provide 10,000 Turkish lira (about US$531) to help affected families, he added.
“We are in a better place today. Tomorrow will be even better,” he said.
Most of the buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras were left intact by the quake, but buildings in the newer areas above the valley suffered less noticeable damage.
At the foot of the city, near the collapsed buildings, we could hear the cries and lamentations of many people who had lived there before the disaster.
Rather than clutching a handful of photos of loved ones under the rubble and hoping to rescue them, as an act of remembrance – holding out snapshots of their children or wedding photos, saying “they’re gone.” say.
Amidst the rubble, anger was also seen as desperate survivors tried to urge rescuers to search for their missing loved ones first.
In addition to the enormous death toll, tens of thousands were injured in one of the largest earthquakes to hit the region in more than 100 years.
A three-month state of emergency has been declared in 10 Turkish provinces, with aid agencies warning of “devastating” effects in northwestern Syria. In northwest Syria, millions of vulnerable displaced people were already dependent on humanitarian assistance.
In Kahramammaras, all you can do is wait in agony as the clock ticks to find the remaining survivors.