Ten days after the earthquake in Turkey, the search for survivors is coming to an end and is now giving way to backhoes and excavators who are beginning to clear the thousands of buildings that have collapsed in on themselves, under the incredulous gaze of the inhabitants.
With our special correspondents in Antioch, Pierre Olivier And Jad El Khoury
Everywhere in the city, the same muffled noises. It is now the turn of the bulldozers to come into action. The arrival of these machines also signals the end of the search for survivors. Opposite, the inhabitants watch, incredulous and with tears in their eyes, their life before disappearing, nibbled away little by little by the demolition machines. Often, when an excavator lifts a block of concrete, the remains of a living room, the remains of a kitchen and sometimes even children’s books or toys reappear.
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Ten days after the earthquake, the inhabitants understood that the chances of finding survivors are slim. ” I lost my uncle, my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. Rescuers used all the technology possible. So if they say that now we have to clear, it’s true. Those who survived survived, those who died are already dead! “Blows one of them.
Long and difficult reconstruction
Several relatives of Souleyman Ayden are still under the rubble. However, he approves of these clearing operations. “ There is a limit beyond which human beings can no longer survive under the rubble, that’s how it is! Now finding survivors is a miracle. The bodies are decomposing and it feels here so we have to start cleaning up. For illnesses too, because if an epidemic breaks outwe can’t stop it “, he remarks.
But Mustapha Cachik also wants to think about the future: “ The houses in which we are sure that there is no one begin to be cleaned. And then we will have to rebuild housing for the inhabitants! This is why the clearing must begin. The city must be rebuilt and with the help of god, we will begin the reconstruction step by step “. But even with these thousands of backhoes and construction machinery of all kinds, the reconstruction promises to be more than long and difficult.
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