Hope for survivors wanes as toll from Turkey-Syria quake tops 33,000
It took hours for workers to reach the man in question and cut rebar from his large body frame.
Then they rolled him into a black body bag.
It was a scene repeated in southern Turkey and northwest Syria on Sunday, as the death toll from the tremors eclipsed 33,000 people as hopes faded that more survivors could be pulled from the rubble, and the The United Nations said the relief effort had “failed” for the people. from north-west Syria.
Almost a week after the February 6 tremors, rescue efforts shifted to recovery missions in several areas. More than 1.1 million people have been displaced in Turkey. Countless lay buried under the rubble. In Syria, a shortage of excavators meant people were desperately digging for their loved ones on their own.
In the areas devastated by the earthquake, the tremendous need was hard to understand.
“We have not seen suffering and devastation of this magnitude in over a decade,” said Johan Mooij, World Vision Syria’s chief of operations, in a statement. “The impact is so tremendous… it could take a generation for survivors to recover.”
More than 29,600 people in Turkey and 3,400 in Syria were killed in the quakes, officials in the countries said. The numbers, they warned, would almost certainly increase.
Amid the devastation, anger mounted over the aid divide between Turkey, into which tons of aid has flowed, and rebel-held northwest Syria, where response has lagged and people – many already displaced by a brutal civil war – have been mostly left to cope alone the crisis.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has restricted access to the north-west, which is under the control of armed opposition groups. With the backing of allies like Russia and China on the UN Security Council, he has a history of regularly blocking humanitarian aid shipments there.
UN officials remain largely silent about the political machinations that have hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid, a silence critics claim is intended to allow them to maintain access to Damascus.
They have cited damaged roads and security concerns as factors complicating the delivery of aid to north-west Syria. But on a Sunday visit to Bab al-Hawa, the only open aid corridor on the Turkey-Syria border, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, admitted mistakes.
“We have failed the people of northwest Syria so far,” Griffiths said in a tweet. “You’re right to feel let down. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived. It is my duty and our obligation to fix this error as soon as possible. That’s what I’m concentrating on now.”
For some, the admission came as too little, too late.
Raed Al Saleh, the head of Syria’s civil defense, whose volunteers are known as the White Helmets, said in a tweet that he appreciates the “apologies for the shortcomings and mistakes”. But he called for more cross-border aid routes to be opened without UN Security Council approval.
“Waiting for UN Security Council approval to reopen more border crossings into the Northwest is utterly misguided,” he said in a statement. “There can be no more delays. … If the medical supplies don’t escalate quickly, the UN will be left with even more blood on its hands.”
Meanwhile, Dan Stoenescu, European Union Charge d’Affaires for Syria, urged member states to ensure sanctions against the Syrian government “do not hinder” the delivery of aid. He told Reuters that the bloc would seek assurances that aid would not just be diverted to Assad loyalists.
In Turkey, authorities widened their probe into contractors and others they say may be responsible for the collapse of buildings in the quakes, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has faced mounting criticism over the years for allegedly not enforcing building codes and responding promptly to the current disaster.
Bekir Bozdag, the country’s justice minister, said prosecutors in 10 provinces have been working “quite intensively” to investigate possible negligence or wrongdoing in the construction of buildings. He said there were more than 130 suspects.
Two contractors responsible for collapsed buildings in Adiyaman were arrested at Istanbul Airport on Sunday, local media reported. Two others were arrested in Gaziantep province for allegedly cutting down pillars to make room in a collapsed building, state-run Anadolu Agency said.
“Other suspects are being identified,” Bozdag said at a press conference on Sunday. “Please be assured that the investigations will be conducted in accordance with the rule of law. Those who were negligent will be identified.”
He also said that Turkish authorities are investigating several dozen incidents of looting and theft.
“Unfortunately, some people have taken advantage of people’s pain,” Bozdag said.
Although the chances of surviving those remaining trapped under the rubble were decreasing by the hour, rescue efforts continued in some areas. Local media reported that there had been some rescues, including a 10-year-old girl trapped under the rubble in Gaziantep for 159 hours.
In Islahiye, as in many other towns and villages, residents now mostly live outdoors. They said city authorities had banned them from entering buildings at risk of collapse. So instead they camped in tents and burned trash and kindling to keep warm.
“It’s winter and we still can’t go inside the houses,” said Ahmet Kurt, a local school principal. “People are afraid, they are shocked. You can’t expect people to stay here.”
Kurt had joined families in vigil in front of another collapsed building. He said his older sister Ozgul was supposedly buried under another house nearby.
He didn’t think she was alive, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Look around; we’re all waiting,” Kurt said. “It’s like we’re all waiting for our older sisters.”
Coletta reported from Rio de Janeiro, Villegas from Washington, Timsit from London and Cho from Seoul.