More than 21,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, officials said. Follow live updates here.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria have been left homeless in the middle of winter following Monday’s deadly earthquakes. Across northwestern Syria — where temperatures are below freezing — many people are staying in makeshift shelters, mosques and in the ruins of destroyed buildings.
Mousa Zidane, a volunteer with the “White Helmets,” officially known as Syria Civil Defense, told CNN on Thursday that in the aftermath of the quakes, « tens of thousands of families are currently homeless all-over northwest Syria. »
Zidane said the cold weather is adding to the catastrophe, as rescue teams struggle to extract people from under the rubble.
People need their homes back and their dead « pulled out and buried, » Zidane added.
When asked about diggers, Zidane said they were not initially available, but a limited number are now working to clear the debris. « Not enough to cover the whole area. We need more, » he said.
Zidane said there is limited access to aid that doesn’t cover people’s needs in northwest Syria, much of which is controlled by anti-government rebels amid a humanitarian crisis resulting from Syria’s more than decade-long civil war.
With the death toll in Turkey and Syria surpassing 21,000, the earthquake has now marked a grim milestone — it’s in the top 10 of deadliest quakes over the past 20 years.
A number of factors have contributed to making this earthquake so lethal. One of them is the time of day it occurred. With the quake hitting early in the morning, many people were in their beds when it happened, and are now trapped under the rubble of their homes.
Additionally, with a cold and wet weather system moving through the region, poor conditions have made reaching affected areas trickier, and rescue and recovery efforts on both sides of the border significantly more challenging once teams have arrived.
