Death toll rises above 15,000 in Turkey-Syria quake, as hope dwindles for survivors
[IsraelTimes] The death toll from the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday climbed above 15,000 by Wednesday, according to authorities, as rescuers raced to save survivors trapped under debris in freezing weather.
Officials and medics said 12,391 people had died in Turkey and 2,992 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 15,383. Tens of thousands more were injured.
Rescue teams in Turkey and Syria have been searching for signs of life from an untold number of people trapped in the rubble. Teams from more than two dozen countries, including Israel, have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in the effort. But the scale of destruction from the quake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense and spread over such a wide area that many people were still awaiting help.
Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble or otherwise unable to obtain basic necessities was closing rapidly. At the same time, they said it was too soon to abandon hope.
“The first 72 hours are considered to be critical,” said Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England. “The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%.”
Rescuers at times used excavators or picked gingerly through debris. It was not clear how many people might still be trapped.
David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, said data from past earthquakes suggested the likelihood of survival was now slim, particularly for seriously injured individuals.
“Statistically, today is the day when we’re going to stop finding people,” he said on Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean we should stop searching.”
Alexander cautioned that the final death toll may not be known for weeks because of the sheer amount of rubble. The earthquake’s toll has already outstripped that of a 7.8-magnitude quake in Nepal in 2015, when 8,800 died. A 2011 earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people.
Many of those who survived this week’s quake lost their homes and were forced to sleep in cars, government shelters, or outdoors amid rain and snowfall in some areas.
“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape,” Aysan Kurt, 27, said. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
Temperatures in the quake-stricken Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius early Thursday but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents — too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Syrian Ministry of Health Earthquake Casualty Count: At Least 2,500 Killed 4,885 Injured
[HodhodYemenNews] The corpse count from the devastating earthquake in Syria has risen to 2,500 deaths and 4,885 injuries across the country, in an ongoing toll, according to the counter’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement that the number of victims in Hama province rose to 51 deaths and 73 injuries, and in Lattakia to 506 deaths and 792 injuries, in an indefinite toll. In addition, they counted 390 deaths and 750 injuries in Aleppo, and in the city of Jableh, the corpse count reached 254 deaths and 171 injuries.
The Syrian Minister of Health, Hassan al-Ghabbash, said: "The ambulance response cadres raced against time to the accident sites, carrying over 600 health personnel with various specialties."
Moreover, the number of collapsed buildings reached 102 buildings in Lattakia and 54 in Aleppo.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again...
the so-called Civil Defense (White Helmets) also announced that the corpse count from the earthquake in the terrorist groups-held northwestern Syrian areas has risen to more than 1,280 deaths and more than 2,600 injured, and the number is expected to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families under the rubble.
The National Seismological Center reported that an earthquake measuring 4.5 degrees on the Richter scale struck at 9:09 am on Wednesday in the Iskenderun district, 48 km north of Syria.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
A minor 4.2-magnitude quake struck an area five kilometers south of Hermel and was felt in the Bekaa, the Nort... https://t.co/V6ggLnkQUr
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) February 8, 2023
Death toll from Syria-Turkey quake surpasses 11,000
[NYPOST] The corpse count from the earthquake that devastated
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
and Syria surpassed 11,000 Wednesday as rescuers toiled through the night in frigid temperatures in a frantic — and increasingly desperate — race against time to find survivors.
The tally was expected to rise even higher as hundreds of collapsed buildings in many cities have become tombs for people who had been asleep in their beds when the initial 7.8 magnitude quake hit in the early morning on Monday.
Turkey’s President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...announced that the corpse count in the country has reached 8,754 as he visited a "tent city" in Kahramanmaras where people left homeless by the disaster are living.
Speaking to news hounds, with constant ambulance sirens in the background, Erdogan acknowledged there had been problems early on in the response but vowed that everything would get better by the day and that no one would "be left in the streets."