The rescuers are fighting a superhuman battle in Turkey and Syria after the devastating 7.8 and 7.7 Richter earthquakes which shocked the two countries. Shocking are the images of the rescue of little Eleni from the ruins of Hatay Province, after 68 hours.
According to rescuers, the little girl is in good health and is being monitored by doctors.
The rescue teams in Turkey and Syria continue today in bitter cold to find survivors in the ruins. “The first 72 hours are critical for locating survivors, more than 90% of survivors have been located within this time,” notes Ilan Kelman, a disaster researcher at University College London (UCL).
THE Efthymios Lekkas, president of OASP, head of the Greek mission in Turkey, spoke today to ERT, where he said: “I will not be surprised if the dead reach 50,000”. Corresponding leveling images he remembers after the big one earthquake of Izmit in 1999.
“This is one of the big disasters, we haven’t assessed it yet. I would not be surprised if about 50,000 dead are reported much higher than what is announced and this is based on combined observations we made in buildings as well as based on information we got from Turkish colleagues. I repeat, it would not surprise me at all if the death toll reached 50,000. It is a huge area roughly the size of mainland Greece, from the Peloponnese to Macedonia and Thrace.”
In fact, he shared one of his experiences: “Inside a pillar of an apartment building, that is, in a pillar, instead of having the appropriate material, there were river pebbles, whole stones in the concrete, it did not have the normal materials, that is, gravel and cement. Within the mass of the column were unrelated materials, which of course do not contribute to armor in any way. There are thousands of these constructions, it is not a circumvention of the regulations. It is an illegality that we in Greece would consider to exist at 1% or 2%. In Turkey that’s the rule.”
Mr. Lekkas repeated that the people have not realized that from tomorrow they will have absolutely nothing and the rage will overflow.
Finally, he referred to the men of EMAK and the heroic efforts being made: “The men of EMAK have three days to sleep properly, in the cold with -5 degrees and they are constantly taking risks. When we come on a mission like this, we forget everything behind us, because otherwise you can’t survive.”
As operations continue day and night, the new drop in temperature makes life a nightmare for the survivors who have nowhere to go. Gyms, mosques, schools and shops have welcomed survivors, but beds are few and thousands spend their nights in their cars or in makeshift shelters.
Source: News Beast
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