The search for survivors grew more desperate, the homeless problem more acute and the death toll rose sharply Wednesday as rescuers labored to find signs of life amid the rubble of Monday’s earthquakes and aftershocks that laid waste to a wide swath of Turkey and Syria.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said the country’s death toll passed 8,500. The Syrian Health Ministry placed the toll in government-held areas at more than 1,200, and at least 1,400 people have died in the rebel-held northwest, according to the White Helmets volunteer agency.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday inspected relief efforts in Kahramanmaras province, where the two powerful quakes and aftershocks were centered. Damage was spread over at least nine other provinces, affecting more than 13 million of his nation’s 86 million people.
Erdogan toured a tent city and pledged that no one would “be left in the streets.” He acknowledged the response had started slowly but dismissed criticism that the government needed to do more.
“We have mobilized all our resources,” Erdogan said. “The state is working with municipalities, especially (disaster agencies) with all its means.”
TRAGEDY IN TURKEY: Photos capture devastating aftermath of powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake
Developments:
►More than 40,910 people had been injured in Turkey, according to the nation’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.
►Erdogan said the government would distribute $532 to affected families in Turkey.
►Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu blamed the devastation on Erdogan’s two-decade rule, saying he had not prepared the country for a disaster and accusing him of misspending funds. Turkey elections are schedule for May.
►Syria’s Prime Minister Hussein Arnous visited collapsed neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo: ““Our priority now is to rescue the people who are still under the rubble.”
‘LIKE WE WOKE UP IN HELL’:Over 11,000 dead in quake-battered Turkey, Syria; baby rescued after being born under rubble
Some parts of region could remain ‘uninhabitable for years’
The region sits above major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.
Dale Buckner, CEO of McLean, Virginia-based Global Guardian, said his international security firm has clients in the region, and his team is helping with medical evacuations, transportation and the delivery of food, water, and power supplies in and around the earthquake zone. It will take months to stabilize the region and years to recover from the disaster, he said.
“The size and scale of the destruction our team has witnessed is difficult to describe,” Buckner told USA TODAY. “Some infrastructure will never be replaced. The damage is so widespread it will be uninhabitable for years to come.”
YOU CAN HELP:How to donate to Turkey and Syria earthquake relief and recovery efforts
Winter cold adds to woes of those left homeless
The cold made life miserable for those who lost their homes. Many survivors have had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters with temperatures dipping into the low 20s.
“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold,” Aysan Kurt, 27, said. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
International teams join thousands of local first responders
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. But the scale of destruction from the 7.8 magnitude quake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense – and spread so wide, including in areas isolated by Syria’s ongoing civil war – that millions are still waiting for help.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Story Credit: usatoday.com