The death toll from the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria surpassed 11,000 Wednesday as rescuers toiled through the night in frigid temperatures in a frantic — and increasingly desperate — race against time to find survivors.
The tally was expected to rise even higher as hundreds of collapsed buildings in many cities have become tombs for people who had been asleep in their beds when the initial 7.8 magnitude quake hit in the early morning on Monday.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the death toll in the country had surpassed 9,000 as he visited a “tent city” in Kahramanmaras where people left homeless by the disaster are living.
Officials in Syria have reported more than 2,600 deaths from Monday’s quake, taking the overall death toll to over 11,700 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Speaking to reporters, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Erdogan acknowledged Wednesday there had been problems early on in the response but vowed that everything would get better by the day and that no one would “be left in the streets.”
“On the first day we experienced some issues but then on the second day and today the situation is under control,” he said.
The government plans to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected, he added. The area is home to some 13.5 million people.
The most destructive in decades, the initial tremor wrought havoc on hospitals, airports, and roads, and knocked down more than 6,400 buildings in Turkey.
Many residents have since complained about insufficient resources and slow emergency response.
Erdogan urged citizens to only heed communication from authorities and ignore “provocateurs.”
In the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral vehicles to pick them up, according to former journalist Ozel Pikal who saw eight bodies pulled from the ruins of a building.
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Pikal, who took part in the rescue efforts, said he believes at least some of the victims may have frozen to death as temperatures dipped to 21 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Today isn’t a pleasant day, because as of today there is no hope left in Malatya,” Pikal said. “No one is coming out alive from the rubble.”
There was a shortage of rescuers in the area he was in, and the cold hampered rescue efforts by volunteers and government teams, he said.
“Our hands cannot pick up anything because of the cold,” said Pikal.
More than 180,000 people may still be trapped among the rubble — and nearly all of them could be dead, earthquake expert Ovgun Ahmet Ercan told The Economist.
Families in southern Turkey and in Syria spent a second night in the freezing cold as overwhelmed rescuers tried to pull people from the rubble.
Many in the Turkish disaster zone had slept in their cars or in the streets under blankets, fearful of going back into buildings shaken by the temblors.
“Where are the tents, where are food trucks?” said Melek, 64, in Antakya, adding she had not seen any rescue teams.”We haven’t seen any food distribution here, unlike previous disasters in our country. We survived the earthquake, but we will die here due to hunger or cold here.”
Turkey’s disaster management agency said the number of injured was above 38,000.
In Syria, already devastated by 11 years of war, the confirmed toll climbed to more than 2,600 Wednesday, according to the Syrian government and a rescue service operating in the rebel-held northwest.
Residents in Syrian government-held territory contacted by phone have described the authorities’ response as slow, with some areas receiving more help than others.
In the town of Jandaris in the north, rescue workers and residents said dozens of buildings had collapsed.
Standing around the wreckage of what had been a 32-apartment building, relatives of people who had lived there said they had seen no one removed alive. A lack of heavy equipment to remove large concrete slabs was impeding rescue efforts.
Rescue workers have struggled to reach some of the worst-hit areas, held back by destroyed roads, poor weather, and a lack of resources and heavy equipment. Some areas are without fuel and electricity.
A rescue service operating in insurgent-held northwest Syria said the number of dead had climbed to more than 1,280 and more than 2,600 were injured.
“The number is expected to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families under the rubble, more than 50 hours after the earthquake,” the rescue service said on Twitter.
Overnight, the Syrian health minister said the number of dead in government-held areas rose to 1,250, the state-run al-Ikhbariya news outlet reported on its Telegram feed. The number of wounded was 2,054, he said.
Aid efforts in Syria have been hampered by the ongoing civil war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.
Search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel, and aid pledges have poured in from around the world.
While concerns are rising for those still trapped, Polish rescuers working in Turkey said they had pulled nine people alive from the rubble so far, including parents with two children and a 13-year-old girl from the ruins in the city of Besni.
They acknowledged that low temperatures were working against them, though two firefighters told Polish TVN24 that the fact that people were caught in bed under warm covers by the pre-dawn quake could help. The rescuers are currently trying to reach a woman who they know is in her bed.
Pope Francis asked during his weekly general audience for prayers and demonstrations of solidarity following the “devastating” earthquake.
With Post wires
