Last day in search for quake survivors
Source: Agencies |
October 30, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TURKISH rescue teams yesterday were digging through the remains of four collapsed buildings in what the deputy prime minister said would be the final day of the search for survivors of a devastating earthquake six days ago.
The death toll in the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that also hit Iran and Armenia, increased to 582, of whom 455 were in the eastern city of Ercis. Close to 4,000 were injured, the Ercis crisis management center said.
Yesterday, rescuers pulled the body of a 27-year-old female teacher from a crumbled building and continued drilling through the wreckage in search of two other missing people.
Turkan Ormanoglu waited outside wailing for her son, another teacher, believed to be trapped beneath, as hopes of finding more survivors were fading.
"We want to keep our hopes up, but I don't know," rescuer Yilmaz Ersoy said, before pausing pensively. "There is no indication that he is alive, but we are working as though he is."
Missing teacher Tahir Ormanoglu's family rushed to Ercis from the southern city of Adana as soon as they heard news of the earthquake and have been waiting outside since. At least three people were brought alive from the block of apartments earlier, including a two-week-old baby.
"My kid, my kid, my kid," the mother cried, clutching a photo of her son as she watched the rescue operation from inside a fire engine.
Some survivors, meanwhile, expressed frustration over an uneven quake relief response, even after foreign assistance began pouring in and the government said an initial shortage of tents had now largely been overcome.
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the government was making plans to house the homeless in temporary, prefabricated homes or container-style housing units within two months.
The death toll in the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that also hit Iran and Armenia, increased to 582, of whom 455 were in the eastern city of Ercis. Close to 4,000 were injured, the Ercis crisis management center said.
Yesterday, rescuers pulled the body of a 27-year-old female teacher from a crumbled building and continued drilling through the wreckage in search of two other missing people.
Turkan Ormanoglu waited outside wailing for her son, another teacher, believed to be trapped beneath, as hopes of finding more survivors were fading.
"We want to keep our hopes up, but I don't know," rescuer Yilmaz Ersoy said, before pausing pensively. "There is no indication that he is alive, but we are working as though he is."
Missing teacher Tahir Ormanoglu's family rushed to Ercis from the southern city of Adana as soon as they heard news of the earthquake and have been waiting outside since. At least three people were brought alive from the block of apartments earlier, including a two-week-old baby.
"My kid, my kid, my kid," the mother cried, clutching a photo of her son as she watched the rescue operation from inside a fire engine.
Some survivors, meanwhile, expressed frustration over an uneven quake relief response, even after foreign assistance began pouring in and the government said an initial shortage of tents had now largely been overcome.
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the government was making plans to house the homeless in temporary, prefabricated homes or container-style housing units within two months.
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