Day after day, hour after hour, the toll continues to grow in Turkey and Syria. The latest provisional report on Thursday morning February 9 reports more than 16,000 people, after the two earthquakes and aftershocks that shook the region at the start of the week. Our special envoys were this Wednesday in Osmaniye and Adana.
With our special correspondents in Turkey, Guilhem Delteil, Jad El Khoury And Emre Avci
The city of Osmaniye, in southern Turkey, was badly damaged by the earthquake: more than 500 people lost their lives. And nearly three days after the tragedy, authorities and NGOs are still trying to respond to the emergency.
On this site where we went, four teams of ten rescuers are still at work. A five-story building collapsed. The search began on Monday, and despite the rain that fell that day, rescuers searched tirelessly for 36 hours.
Now, the machines stop when night falls, but operations continue. Several people are still missing.
Although the sun has returned, temperatures remain low in Osmaniye. And during their break, the rescuers try to warm themselves around a small fire lit in the middle of the debris. Around them, families of the disappeared who wait in anguish.
On the other side of the street, neighbors are also watching the progress of the research work with emotion. A little further on, a camp has been erected to accommodate those who have lost their homes, sometimes destroyed, often so damaged by the tremors that they have become dangerous.
About 10,000 people have taken refuge there in tents erected by the agency in charge of disaster management.
Improvised braziers in front of the tents
About a hundred kilometers away, we return to the Adana region, where relief operations are also continuing. The other challenge for the authorities is therefore the care of the survivors. In all the disaster-stricken towns, tents have been erected in parks or car parks to accommodate them.
Houses, buildings have been destroyed, and other buildings are now too fragile for their inhabitants to live there. Some survivors are forbidden to return to their homes, but sometimes it is the fear that their accommodation will collapse that holds them back.
Currently, in the Adana region alone, tens of thousands of people are left homeless. The agency in charge of claims management has therefore opened these camps, in small towns that are sometimes isolated, but also in the center of the provincial capital. And the number of people to take care of is such that only a few centimeters separate the tents from each other. Barely enough to circulate. And each tent houses extended families.
The Red Crescent organizes distributions of hot meals. Clothes are also distributed, the survivors having often been unable to take anything with them. But despite everything, the cold is striking. And to keep warm, all these survivors can only install improvised braziers in front of their tent.
“All my childhood memories are lost”
With each passing hour, the hope of finding survivors dwindles. Rescuers continue to search the rubble under the gaze of several hundred people. Very close to a collapsed building: survivors, relatives of missing persons, neighbors, but also volunteers who came with whatever help they could provide.
On a plastic table, a large pot of soup is laid out. It was a teacher who prepared it. ” I live far from here, but for two days, I have been preparing these meals at home and I come to distribute them here to help the disaster victims. “, she confides.
Suddenly, shouts and whistles come from the area where the rescuers are working. Perhaps the hope of having found a survivor. Silence sets in immediately, everyone holds their breath. This time it’s a false hope, the search resumes.
In a nearby street, a building is still standing, completely gutted on one of its facades. Too unstable, its access is, again, forbidden to its inhabitants. Never mind, some still pass under the bands deployed by the police to try to recover some property.
Two police officers then arrive on a motorbike. The inhabitants and the person in charge of the building are called to order. ” The police said to stay away from the building and asked me to make sure people did not enter “, explains the latter.
The authorities have announced the imminent destruction of this eleven-storey building. For the inhabitants, this means losing a whole part of their life. “ All I want is to get my photo albums back. All my childhood memories are lost. that is the most important : our memories “, sighs one of them.
► To read again: Earthquakes in Turkey: in Adana, the search for survivors continues but hopes are dwindling