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The search for survivors grew more desperate, the homeless problem more acute and the death toll rose sharply Wednesday as rescuers labored to find signs of life amid the rubble of Monday’s earthquakes and aftershocks that laid waste to a wide swath of Turkey and Syria.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said the country’s death toll passed 12,000 early Thursday. The Turkish news agency Andalou reported that 12,391 people were killed and 62,914 others were injured.
The Syrian Health Ministry placed the toll in government-held areas at more than 1,200, and at least 1,400 people have died in the rebel-held northwest, according to the White Helmets volunteer agency.
The total of 15,000-plus fatalities, the largest worldwide for an earthquake event in more than a decade, is expected to rise. Experts says the survival rate in an incident of this magnitude is below 25% after 72 hours, and the frigid temperatures make the chances even slimmer.
Dale Buckner, CEO of McLean, Virginia-based Global Guardian, said his international security firm has clients in the region, and his team is helping with medical evacuations, transportation and the delivery of food, water and power supplies in and around the earthquake zone. It will take months to stabilize the region and years to recover from the disaster, he said.
« The size and scale of the destruction our team has witnessed is difficult to describe, » Buckner told USA TODAY. « Some infrastructure will never be replaced. The damage is so widespread it will be uninhabitable for years to come. »
That assessment stands in sharp contrast with Wednesday’s vow by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that homes in the 10 most affected provinces would be rebuilt within a year and that his government “will not leave any of our citizens uncared for.”
Elections are scheduled for May 14.
TRAGEDY IN TURKEY: Photos capture devastating aftermath of powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake
Developments:
►Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he was told by Turkey’s government that access to the platform would be restored soon after complaints it had been restricted. Some trapped survivors have used Twitter to communicate with rescuers and loved ones, while others have tweeted complaints about the response.
►A 13-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble on Wednesday, 55 hours after the quakes first struck, Turkish rescuers said. The boy was saved in Kahramanmaras, the quakes’ epicenter, after three hours of intense digging.
►Turkish Airlines said it evacuated 19,050 people from the region Tuesday and planned to evacuate 30,000 more Wednesday. Airline official Yahya Ustun urged residents to « wait their turn … calmly. »
►More than 40,910 people had been injured in Turkey, according to the nation’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.
