Tragedy, chaos and despair have invaded Turkey since Monday, where there have been two powerful earthquakes and numerous aftershocks that have caused the death of thousands of people, as well as many thousands of others have been injured. However, in one of the most catastrophic scenarios on record in Europe in the last century, there is also room for hope; the one they keep search and rescue services missing among the rubble caused by the earthquake.
Proof of this is the data offered in the last few hours by the Vice President of Turkey, who has reported that, up to now, more than 8,000 people have been rescued from among the thousands of buildings that have collapsed due to strong tremors. On the morning of this Tuesday, without going any further, a 30-year-old man was pulled out alive from the rubble, almost 30 hours after the tremors began. A mother and her three children have also been found alive after 28 hours trapped.
Right now, as reported by the Disaster and Emergency Management Office (AFAD), under the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, Some 25,000 people, including soldiers, participate in rescue and relief efforts of the thousands affected who, according to estimates, are still trapped among the ruins caused by the earthquakes. In addition, dozens of countries have already begun sending hundreds of rescuers and experts in search of survivors.
But the conditions to carry out this enormous device are far from optimal in the country right now, and not only because of the risk that these tasks entail. Rescuers have been encountering extreme temperatures throughout the early morningbelow zero and with snow in many points -there are also mountainous territories that are difficult to access- and the new aftershocks registered in the last hours have generated both panic, due to the danger of the collapse of more infrastructures, and exhaustion in the face of a work that cannot stop .
On the other hand, Otkay has also explained that more than 350,000 earthquake victims have been relocated in university centers, shelters and student residences. Likewise, seriously injured people are being evacuated by plane to medical centers in Istanbul and Ankara, and ten boats are also transferring victims from the port of Iskenderún, southeast of where the epicenter was registered, to other areas.
Syria, the other great drama
An identical situation is going through Syria. There, as indicated by the head of the civil defense service led by the Syrian opposition, Raed al-Saleh, time is running out to save hundreds of families who remain trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings after the devastating earthquake. Al-Saleh has further warned that urgent help from international groups is needed to bolster rescue efforts by the organization known as the White Helmets in rebel-held northwestern Syria, where hundreds of people have been killed and injured.
“It is the most important earthquake suffered by this country accustomed to earthquakes in recent decades,” he said. Mikel Ayestaran in an interview with El Intermedio, program in which he explained how the rescue device is working there, in the Asian country, also with big problems: “Communications go wrong and anguish grows“. And he specified: “There are thousands and thousands of people who have lost everything and who are sleeping outdoors. In Syria they are rescuing people with their bare hands, there is no material.”