Turk pulled out alive 4 days after earthquake
Source: Agencies |
October 28, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TURKEY'S state-run news agency says rescuers have pulled out a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed building four days after a powerful earthquake hit eastern Turkey, killing 532 people.
Anatolia news agency said the man is in his late 20s.
Television footage yesterday showed the man, surrounded by medics and other emergency workers, being rushed through hospital doors.
Rain and snow in the area is making life miserable for thousands of earthquake survivors.
Emergency officials said 2,300 people were injured and 185 have been rescued from the rubble after Sunday's devastating 7.2-magnitude quake. Some 2,000 buildings have been destroyed and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for habitation.
More aid began to reach survivors, with Turkish authorities delivering more tents after acknowledging distribution problems that included aid trucks being looted even before they reached Ercis, the hardest-hit town.
Families who did snag a precious aid tent shared them with others. But some people spent a fourth night outdoors huddled under blankets in front of campfires, either waiting for news of the missing or keeping watch over damaged homes. As survivors gathered pieces of wood to light campfires or stove-heaters, the Red Crescent and several pro-Islamic groups set up kitchens and dished out soup or rice and beans.
Sermin Yildirim, eight months pregnant, was sharing a tent with a family of four who were distant relatives, along with her own twins and husband. Her family was too afraid of returning to their apartment.
"It's getting colder, my kids are coughing. I don't know how long we will have to stay here," Yildirim said. "We were not able to get a tent. We are waiting to get our own."
Burke Cinar, a sociologist with a Turkish foundation, said the group was trying to get tents for the families of 15 children with leukemia.
Looking ahead, Turkey's weather agency predicted intermittent snowfall for the next three days.
Foreign assistance also began arriving. Israel, which has a troubled political relationship with Turkey, sent emergency housing units, blankets and clothing. Britain said it was dispatching 1,000 tents and Germany, Russia and Ukraine also contributed. A Japanese disaster rescue team was working alongside Turkish rescuers.
Syrians who had fled across the border to Turkey to escape violence in their homeland donated blood for the injured, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Search and rescue operations ended in the provincial capital of Van, state-run TRT television said. But searchers in bright orange raincoats continued digging through debris in Ercis, 90 kilometers to the north.
They pulled out the bodies of two dead teenage sisters and their parents who were holding hands, and a mother clutching her baby boy, according to media reports.
Two teachers and a university student were rescued from ruined buildings on Wednesday, but there were no survivors a day later. One of the teachers later died in the hospital. Some media reports said rescuers pulled out a 19-year-old alive yesterday, but rescue team chief Mustafa Ozden said the youth was rescued on Tuesday.
Anatolia news agency said the man is in his late 20s.
Television footage yesterday showed the man, surrounded by medics and other emergency workers, being rushed through hospital doors.
Rain and snow in the area is making life miserable for thousands of earthquake survivors.
Emergency officials said 2,300 people were injured and 185 have been rescued from the rubble after Sunday's devastating 7.2-magnitude quake. Some 2,000 buildings have been destroyed and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for habitation.
More aid began to reach survivors, with Turkish authorities delivering more tents after acknowledging distribution problems that included aid trucks being looted even before they reached Ercis, the hardest-hit town.
Families who did snag a precious aid tent shared them with others. But some people spent a fourth night outdoors huddled under blankets in front of campfires, either waiting for news of the missing or keeping watch over damaged homes. As survivors gathered pieces of wood to light campfires or stove-heaters, the Red Crescent and several pro-Islamic groups set up kitchens and dished out soup or rice and beans.
Sermin Yildirim, eight months pregnant, was sharing a tent with a family of four who were distant relatives, along with her own twins and husband. Her family was too afraid of returning to their apartment.
"It's getting colder, my kids are coughing. I don't know how long we will have to stay here," Yildirim said. "We were not able to get a tent. We are waiting to get our own."
Burke Cinar, a sociologist with a Turkish foundation, said the group was trying to get tents for the families of 15 children with leukemia.
Looking ahead, Turkey's weather agency predicted intermittent snowfall for the next three days.
Foreign assistance also began arriving. Israel, which has a troubled political relationship with Turkey, sent emergency housing units, blankets and clothing. Britain said it was dispatching 1,000 tents and Germany, Russia and Ukraine also contributed. A Japanese disaster rescue team was working alongside Turkish rescuers.
Syrians who had fled across the border to Turkey to escape violence in their homeland donated blood for the injured, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Search and rescue operations ended in the provincial capital of Van, state-run TRT television said. But searchers in bright orange raincoats continued digging through debris in Ercis, 90 kilometers to the north.
They pulled out the bodies of two dead teenage sisters and their parents who were holding hands, and a mother clutching her baby boy, according to media reports.
Two teachers and a university student were rescued from ruined buildings on Wednesday, but there were no survivors a day later. One of the teachers later died in the hospital. Some media reports said rescuers pulled out a 19-year-old alive yesterday, but rescue team chief Mustafa Ozden said the youth was rescued on Tuesday.
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