The search for survivors of earthquakes of last February 6 is about to finishwith a provisional record of 41.156 muertos, the Turkish authorities have indicated this Monday. Rescue work has been completed in 10 of the 11 provinces affected by the disaster and only 15 collapses in Hatay province are still continuing, said the president of the AFAD national emergency service, Yunus Seker.
In total, the search teams, made up of nearly 20,000 experts, have tracked 20,870 buildings collapsedhe added.
AFAD has already erected some 300,000 tents in the region to shelter survivors, and plans to set up at least 100,000 prefab houses in the next two months. Right now, 1.3 million people are sheltered in either tents, manufactured homes or temporary care institutions in the affected region, Seker said.
Almost a million have moved to other provinces of the country, 392,000 through the evacuation points established by the Government and 480,000 by their own means, he declared.
The area affected by the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes covers about 100,000 square kilometers and some 13 million people. According to the latest data, some 118,000 buildings in the region, corresponding to some 400,000 homes, have either collapsed or become useless and must be demolished.