Just over a week has passed since the earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey in the early hours of Monday, February 6. Near the earthquake’s epicenter in the provincial capital of Kahramanmaraş, Medyascope correspondents Senem Büyüktanır and Özgecan Özgeç were on the scene speaking with residents and survivors, who described how rescue efforts have slowly turned into cleanup as hope of finding living survivors fades over 150 hours removed from the initial shocks.
Rescue turns to clean-up
Over a week removed from the disaster, residents of central Kahramanmaraş, commonly known as Maraş, are still struggling to access basic amenities. Due to fears of further aftershocks, many residents of the city whose houses survived the initial event are reluctant to return to their homes. One local described how some two-thirds of the city had emptied out, with residents moving temporarily to nearby municipalities or to homes of nearby relatives. Another major shift described by many and observed by Medyascope correspondents has been the shift in recent days from rescue efforts to clean-up, as many lose hope that living survivors remain beneath the rubble. The shift from crane to bulldozer use is a good illustration of this shift; while bulldozers are effective in cleaning up collapsed buildings, they are poor for rescue efforts as they have the potential to seriously injure survivors lying under rubble. The bulldozers now found on many street corners of Maraş have served as an indication to many that the focus has shifted from rescue to clean-up. Some have criticised this change as isolated examples from recent days have shown living survivors emerging from the rubble many days removed from the quake.
Watering the rubble
The rubble excavated by bulldozers in Maraş carries a high volume of fine particulate material that when excavated quickly spreads and contaminates the city’s air quality. In order to subdue these particulates, many workers excavating rubble have turned to watering the piles of debris, another sign that the hope of finding survivors alive under the rubble had likely faded in Maraş. In these clean up efforts witnessed by Medyascope correspondents in Maraş, workers were largely absent from the piles of rubble, instead operating the bulldozers and only pausing to climb the piles of debris in the event that a body is encountered.
Mining workers on the scene
Our correspondents found the majority of clean up efforts in Maraş staffed by mining workers brought in from the surrounding area. Some mining workers we spoke to complained of robbers and looters roaming the city in search of plunder wearing mining uniforms in order to avoid detection.
Tents pitched in front of houses
Many Maraş residents whose houses were damaged but not toppled by last week’s quake fear entering their homes out of fear of collapse. At the same time abandoning their homes entirely is not an option as looting and theft across the city run high following the quake. Therefore many residents have taken to pitching tents in front of their damaged buildings in hopes of discouraging intruders.
“Bodies under the rubble have started to smell”
Medyascope'un günlük e-bülteni
Andaç'a abone olun
Editörlerimizin derlediği öngörüler, analizler, Türkiye’yi ve dünyayı şekillendiren haberler, Medyascope’un e-bülteni Andaç‘la her gün mail kutunuzda.
Müslüm Ibili, a resident of the city who runs the Maraş Erenler Culture and Solidarity Foundation, spoke to Medyascope correspondents about the lack of basic necessities in the city:
“Right now, almost two-thirds of Maraş has moved to other provinces and to other places, as the aftershocks continue. Those remaining are trying to survive on their own. Because the aftershocks have continued, there are still people’s bodies under the rubble and they have started to smell because we cannot remove them. There is an intense smell of corpses when passing through the middle of our market district. The work continues, but because of the severity of the earthquake and the fact that it affected 11 provinces, help has been limited. Despite this, our non-governmental organizations, cemevis [Alevi religious congregations], concerned citizens, and volunteer organizations have provided us with support.”
“Even those who survived the quake must reckon with the cold”
Group Deputy Chairman Cem Yıldız, a representative from Maraş from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), spoke to Medyascope about the struggles faced by survivors in the city in the week since the quake:
“On the first day of the earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, we struggled to make contact with any authorities, especially from the state. People tried to reach their relatives under the rubble themselves. Since no one came to help, they tried to reach them by their own means. At the end of the first day, we think we lost many people due to the weather conditions and the heavy rubble and debris. We continue to see some miracles, but unfortunately due to the inadequacy of the state, nearly 70 percent of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaraş have yet to be excavated. We have a lot of villages [in the province] that have still not been attended to, and also a lot of buildings in the center. People are struggling to survive in very difficult conditions. Even those who survived the quake must reckon with the cold.”
No tents to be found in the earthquake’s epicenter
Just kilometers from the massive quake’s epicenter in Pazarcık, tents are still hard to come by in the Maraş city center. Describing the tent shortage, Yıldız continued saying:
“We can’t find any tents. We hear that AFAD [Turkey’s disaster response agency] confiscated the tents that we tried to deliver in Kahramanmaraş, but AFAD has still been unable to deliver these confiscated tents to other people. Because no tents have been delivered, people are currently struggling with the temperatures of -10, -15 degrees Celsius. Conditions are very difficult.”
Medyascope’s original Turkish-language reporting from Kahramanmaraş can be found here.
