Rescue efforts continue in Turkey and Syria as final earthquake survivors are pulled from rubble

CNN
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Days since magnitude 7.8 Earthquake hits Syria and Turkeythe death toll has now climbed to over 23,000, and stories of survival are all but gone.

Two teenage sisters were rescued from the rubble 101 hours after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey.

15-year-old Ayfer was rescued 99 hours after the earthquake. Her rescuers played her music and promised her ice cream to calm her down. Her sister, Fatma, 13, was rescued two hours after her 10-hour rescue operation after seismic sensors detected signs of life under the rubble.

Five days (about 102 hours) after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, rescue workers evacuated a family of six, including two parents and four children, from a collapsed ground-floor house. rescued. Iskenderun city.

But more than four days later, as temperatures plummeted in both countries, hopes of finding loved ones faded and a reality of grief and shock was brought to the thousands of displaced people in both countries. I’m here.

They can be considered lucky people, but a harsh reality looms large for those who survive.

survivors may face “Secondary disaster” The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Thursday that cold and snow would bring “worsening and frightening conditions”. For example, in the Syrian city of Aleppo, lows are forecast to range from -3°C to -2°C (27°F to 28°F) through the end of this week, while lows are typically 2.5°C in February. (36°F).

At a press conference in Geneva, WHO Incident Response Manager Robert Holden warned that “many people” were surviving “in the open, in deteriorating and terrifying conditions”.

“There is a huge disruption to basic water supplies, a huge disruption to fuel, electricity supplies, communications supplies and the basics of life,” Holden said.

“If we don’t move at the same pace and intensity that we do on the search and rescue side, there is a real danger of a secondary disaster that can hurt more people than the first.” added Holden.

In Syria, the devastation caused by the earthquake is adding to the existing humanitarian crisis resulting from more than a decade of civil war.

The delivery of emergency supplies to the earthquake-hit northern region of the country has been complicated by a long-running civil war between the Syrian government and opposition forces led by President Bashar al-Assad, who has been accused of killing his own people. It’s becoming

Many Western countries have refused to send aid directly to the Syrian regime, which is under US and EU sanctions, and Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekhdad has said any aid received must go through the capital Damascus. and rebel-controlled areas rely on aid groups.United Nations.

Millions of people in northwestern Syria were already suffering from extreme poverty and the effects of a cholera epidemic when the earthquake struck. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the first UN aid convoy from Turkey to northwestern Syria arrived on Thursday, days after the first earthquake, followed by a second convoy on Friday, so they Now I am forced to deal with it on my own.

In the past, aid has flowed through Turkey to northwestern Syria from the Bab Al Hawa crossroads, the only point of entry approved by the UN Security Council. A resolution proposing further opening of the border between Turkey and Syria has been rejected by Russia and China.

Another route was via the “cross line” from Syrian government territory into the rebel-controlled northwest.

The World Food Program (WFP) has called for increased access to affected Syrian territories to replenish aid that has been depleted, and the organization’s executive director described the situation in the northwest of the country. I call it “a catastrophe straddling catastrophes.”

World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley told CNN: “One Security Council-approved transit has resumed, but road damage and delays in customs clearance have significantly affected travel. is hindered,” he said.

“The stockpile we have, especially ready-to-eat food, is quickly depleted and needs to be replenished quickly. To do this, we need access,” Beasley added. rice field.