Rescuers Rejoice As More Quake Survivors Emerge From Rubble
The unlikely rescues, coming so long after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake brought down thousands of buildings, offered fleeting moments of joy amid a catastrophe that has killed nearly 24,000 people
By Justin Spike, Ghaith Alsayed and Zeynep Bilginsoy ••
NBC Universal, Inc.
Thousands of buildings have collapsed across Turkey after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region Monday, killing thousands.
Six relatives huddled in a small air pocket, day after day. A desperate teenager grew so thirsty that he drank his own urine. Two frightened sisters were comforted by a pop song as they waited for rescuers to free them.
These earthquake survivors were among more than a dozen people pulled out of the rubble alive Friday after spending over four days trapped in frigid darkness following the disaster that struck Turkey and Syria.
The unlikely rescues, coming so long after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake brought down thousands of buildings, offered fleeting moments of joy amid a catastrophe that has killed nearly 24,000 people, injured at least 80,000 others and left millions homeless.
In the Mediterranean coastal city of Iskenderun, a crowd chanted “God is great!” as Haci Murat Kilinc and his wife, Raziye, were carried on stretchers to a waiting ambulance.
“You’ve been working so many hours, God bless you!” a relative of the couple told one of their saviors.
One rescue worker said that Kilinc had been joking with crew members while still trapped beneath the rubble, trying to boost their morale.
Two hours earlier in Kahramanmaras, the city closest to the epicenter, rescuers embraced and chanted their thanks to God after pulling a man from his collapsed home.
In Adiyaman, a hard-hit city of more than a quarter-million people, rescuers and onlookers suppressed their joy so as not to frighten 4-year-old Yagiz Komsu as he emerged from the debris, according the HaberTurk television, which broadcast the rescue live.
To distract him, he was given a jelly bean. Teams later rescued his 27-year-old mother, Ayfer Komsu, who had a broken rib.
But the flurry of dramatic rescues could not obscure the devastation spread across a sprawling border region that is home to more than 13.5 million people. Entire neighborhoods of high-rises have been reduced to rubble, and the quake has already killed more people than Japan’s Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, with many more bodies yet to be recovered and counted.
Relatives wept and chanted as rescuers pulled 17-year-old Adnan Muhammed Korkut from a basement in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake’s epicenter. He had been trapped for 94 hours, forced to drink his own urine to survive.
“Thank God you arrived,” he said, embracing his mother and others who leaned down to kiss and hug him as he was being loaded into an ambulance.
Rescue workers pulled a 10-day old infant from the wreckage of a collapsed building on Friday
For one of the rescuers, identified only as Yasemin, Adnan’s survival hit home hard.
“I have a son just like you,” she told him after giving him a warm hug. “I swear to you, I have not slept for four days. … I was trying to get you out.”
Elsewhere, HaberTurk television said rescuers had identified nine people trapped inside the remains of a high-rise apartment block in Iskenderun and pulled out six of them, including a woman who waved at onlookers as she was being carried away on a stretcher. The crowd shouted “God is great!” after she was brought out.
The building was only 600 feet (200 meters) from the Mediterranean Sea and narrowly avoided being flooded when the massive earthquake sent water surging into the city center.
Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images
Kahraman, 62, walks past a row of collapsed buildings after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit the Hatay province in southern Turkey, Antakya, Feb. 21, 2023. The 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck on February 20, two weeks after a 7.8-magnitude quake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of February 6.
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Search and rescue teams look respond to a destroyed building in an Uzbek village damaged by the earthquake, Feb. 21, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has topped 46,000, with search and rescue teams starting to wind down their work.
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A young child stand in destroyed street of an Uzbek village damaged by earthquakes, Feb. 21, 2023 in Hatay, Turkey. The death toll from a catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has topped 46,000, with search and rescue teams starting to wind down their work.
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Soldiers examine a newborn baby rescued from the rubble in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. The newborn, 20-days old, was rescued 59 hours after the earthquake and reported to be in good health. Rescue efforts continue for his mother.
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Soldiers rush a newborn to an ambulance for medical treatment in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. The newborn, 20-days old, was rescued 59 hours after the earthquake and reported to be in good health. Rescue efforts continue for his mother.
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Rescue workers carry Yigit Cakmak, an 8-years-old survivor at the site of a collapsed building 52 hours after the earthquake struck, on Feb. 8, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of Monday, followed by another 7.5-magnitude tremor just after midday. The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and were felt in nearby countries.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
People gather around the rubble of collapsed buildings, Feb. 8, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of Monday, followed by another 7.5-magnitude tremor just after midday. The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and were felt in nearby countries.
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Volunteers work to rescue a woman trapped under debris from a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. Turkey’s government is overwhelmed by the extent of the damage to infrastructure, logistical problems and aid needed to assist the 13.4 million people living in the disaster zone.
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Survivors of the earthquake waiting on news of relatives buried under the rubble hug in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 8, 2023. Hatay is one of the hardest hit regions in Turkey, after a massive 7.8 earthquake and its aftershocks devastated the area.
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Members of the Syrian civil defense, known as the White Helmets, warm themselves by a fire next to the rubble of a collapsed building in Jinderis, Feb. 7, 2023, as search and rescue operations continue following a deadly earthquake.
Mehmet Kacmaz/Getty Images
A woman cries as she waits for the autopsy to be carried out on her aunt, in front of the Elbistan State Hospital, Feb. 8, 2023, in Elbistan Turkey. The massive 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria devastated the area, leveling towns and killing thousands of people as they slept early Monday morning.
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People seen waiting in the earthquake zone on Feb. 7, 2023. Turkey experienced the biggest earthquake of this century in the border region with Syria. The earthquake was measured at 7.7 magnitude.
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Search operations continue after the earthquake on Feb. 7, 2023. Turkey experienced the biggest earthquake of this century in the border region with Syria. The earthquake was measured at 7.7 magnitude.
AytugCan Sencar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Baby Ayse Vera and her mother, Hulya Yilmaz (not pictured), are rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building, 29 hours after powerful earthquakes hit Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023.
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A newborn baby, who was found still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother then pulled alive from the rubble of a home in northern Syria, receives medical care from doctor Hani Maaruf, at a clinic in Afrin, Feb. 7, 2023. The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were all killed when a 7.8-magnitude quake that struck Syria and Turkey flattened the family home in the rebel-held town of Jindaris, the baby’s cousin, Khalil al-Suwadi, said.
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A Syrian boy watches an excavator go through the rubble of a house in which an entire family, save a newborn baby, was killed, Feb. 7, 2023, in the town of Jandaris, Syria, following a deadly earthquake. Residents and rescue workers uncovered a newborn survivor trapped under rubble, her umbilical chord still tied to her mother, who died when the building collapsed.
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Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023. Irmak died when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s southeast border with Syria, devastating the region. Kahramanmaras is close to the quake’s epicenter in Gaziantep.
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]Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Jableh, a town in Syria’s Latakia province, Feb. 7, 2023. A massive rescue effort in Turkey and Syria is hampered by frigid weather in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by powerful quakes that killed more than 5,000 people.
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An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, Turkey, Feb. 7, 2023, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast border with Syria.
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Civilians look for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras on Feb. 7, 2023, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast border with Syria.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
Smoke billows from the Iskenderun Port as rescue workers work at the scene of a collapsed building, Feb. 7, 2023, in Iskenderun, Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, causing widespread destruction in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.
Esra Hacioglu Karakaya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Search and rescue efforts continue in the 8-storey apartment destroyed in the earthquake, in Diyarbakir, Turkey following 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey’s Kahramanmaras on Feb. 6, 2023.
Sezgin Pancar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Search and rescue operations are carried out in the wreckage in Hatay, after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey’s Kahramanmaras, on Feb. 6, 2023.
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A view of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, Turkey following 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Kahramanmaras on Feb. 7, 2023.
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Rescue workers and volunteers search for victims and survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border with Syria.
Can Erok/AFP via Getty Images
A woman cries as rescuers search for survivors through the rubble of a building that collapsed in Adana, Turkey, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border with Syria.
Ilyas Akengin/AFP via Getty Images
A man reacts as people search for survivors through the rubble in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Feb 6, 2023, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border. The quake – followed by a smaller 7.5 magnitude earthquake – was Turkey’s biggest in at least a century.
Can Erok/AFP via Getty Images
Rescuers search for victims and survivors amidst the rubble of a building that collapsed in Adana, Turkey, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeastern border with Syria.
Rami al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images
A man helps an injured resident slide out of the rubble of a collapsed building in Jindires, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the region.
Bakr Alkasem/AFP via Getty Images
A Syrian man weeps as he carries the body of his son who was killed in an earthquake in the town of Jindires, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023.
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Residents stand in front of a collapsed building in Jindires, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the border of Turkey and Syria.
Anas Alkharboutli/dpa via Getty Images
Residents of Idlib, Syria, inspect a destroyed building after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the border between Turkey and Syria, killing thousands and devastating the region.
Ugur Yildirim/dpa via Getty Images
People search for victims and survivors from the rubble of a building in Afrin, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023. Two massive earthquakes – at 7.8 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude respectively – struck in the border region of Turkey and Syria early Monday morning, killing thousands as they slept.
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Rescue teams search for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed building in Aleppo, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023.
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Residents for victims and survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings, following an 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Sarmada, Syria, Feb. 6, 2023.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images
Residents search for victims and survivors amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings in the village of Besnia, Syria, Feb. 6, 2022. The village is close to the Turkish-Syrian border, where a 7.8 magnitude – and later
a 7.5 magnitude – earthquake struck.
Video of another rescue effort in Kahramanmaras showed an emergency worker playing a pop song on his smartphone to distract the two teenage sisters as they waited to be freed.
There were still more stories: A German team said it worked for more than 50 hours to free a woman from a collapsed house in Kirikhan. And a trapped woman could be heard speaking to a team trying to dig her out in video broadcast by HaberTurk television. She told her would-be rescuers that she had given up hope of being found — and prayed to be put to sleep because she was so cold. The station did not say where the operation was taking place.
Even though experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the odds of finding more survivors were quickly waning.
Death loomed everywhere: Morgues and cemeteries were overwhelmed, and bodies wrapped in blankets, rugs and tarps lay in the streets of some cities.
Temperatures remained below freezing across the large region, and many people have no shelter. The Turkish government has distributed millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but was still struggling to reach many people in need.
The disaster compounded suffering in a region beset by Syria's 12-year civil war, which has displaced millions of people within the country and left them dependent on aid. The fighting sent millions more to seek refuge in Turkey.
The conflict has isolated many areas of Syria and complicated efforts to get aid in. The United Nations said the first earthquake-related aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday — a day after an aid shipment planned before the disaster arrived.
The U.N. refugee agency estimated that as many as 5.3 million people have been left homeless in Syria. Sivanka Dhanapala, the country representative in Syria for UNHCR, told reporters Friday that the agency is focusing on providing tents, plastic sheeting, thermal blankets, sleeping mats and winter clothing.
Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife, Asmaa, visited survivors at the Aleppo University Hospital, according to Syrian state media. It was the leader's first public appearance in an affected area of the country since the disaster. He then visited rescuers in one of the city's hardest-hit areas.
Aleppo has been scarred by years of heavy bombardment and shelling — much of it by the forces of Assad and his ally, Russia — and it was among the cities most devastated by the earthquake.
The Syrian government also announced that it will allow aid to reach all parts of the country, including areas held by insurgent groups in the northwest.
Also Friday, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, declared a cease-fire in its separatist insurgency in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, including some areas affected by the quake.
Turkey’s disaster-management agency said more than 20,200 people had been confirmed killed in the disaster so far in Turkey, with more than 80,000 injured.
More than 3,500 have been confirmed killed in Syria, bringing the total number of dead to nearly 24,000.
Some 12,000 buildings in Turkey have either collapsed or sustained serious damage, according to Turkey’s minister of environment and urban planning, Murat Kurum. Turkey's vice president, Fuat Oktay, said more than 1 million people were being housed in temporary shelters.
Engineers suggested that the scale of the devastation was partly explained by lax enforcement of building codes.
Alsayed reported from Bab al-Hawa, Syria, and Fraser from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press journalists Zeynep Bilginsoy and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul; Mehmet Guzel in Antakya, Turkey; Emrah Gurel and Yakup Paksoy in Adiyaman, Turkey; Bassem Mroue and Abby Sewell in Beirut; and David Rising in Bangkok contributed.
