The earliest reports of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which started around 4 a.m. local time in Turkey and Syria, included more than 2,300 people killed with thousands of buildings destroyed. Since then, the death toll has continued to climb while reports of survivors being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings has inspired hope.
A 10-day old baby and his mother were rescued 90 hours after the disaster and survivors have been pulled more than six whole days after the quake. Intelligent estimates suggest the earthquake activity was one of the strongest in the region in a century. Turkey is not new to earthquakes and the region has recorded at least 58 earthquakes since 1990 alone. The last earthquake of this magnitude in Turkey was reported in 1939.
The latest figure put the death toll at over 28,000 in both Turkey and Syria. Roughly 6,500 buildings in Turkey collapsed with thousands more damaged. Officials in Turkey have said 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east.
The challenge for many of the survivors has been finding shelter, water, fuel and electricity; and there are fears this could lead to a further loss of lives. Survivors in the first three days after the quake had to spend their nights sleeping in cars or out in the open in spite of the freezing temperatures.
Help has been coming to survivors, but it has been slow and uncoordinated. The first few days were the most difficult when local residents had to dig with their hands to rescue trapped relatives and neighbours. It wasn’t only the Turkish government that was slow in responding, international organizations and world leaders also failed to act expeditiously as demanded by the situation.
Martin Griffiths, the head of the United Nations aid has responded to some of these criticisms saying in a tweet that “We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria” and people there rightly feel abandoned. But international relief efforts have in the past few days shown more promise with the World Bank pledging $1.78bn in aid to Turkey including immediate finance for rebuilding basic infrastructure and to support those affected by the earthquakes. The US also pledged a package of $85m to both Turkey and Syria.
But just as crucial to the rescue efforts is the equipment to dig through collapsed buildings, the expertise of rescue crews and the ability to detect life deep inside the rubble of destroyed buildings. The expertise could be something as little, but significant, as knowing which collapsed buildings are likely to have survivors buried under them and listening to strange sounds.
A number of rescue missions are already been called off due to the unlikelihood of finding more survivors. On average, search and rescue missions are called off between five and seven days after a disaster. But so far, 24 hours hasn’t gone by by in this disaster zone without a survivor been pulled from the rubble. For many countries, the scramble to offer aid to victims of the disaster is coming from both governments and non-profit organisations. Non-profit groups are raising money and humanitarian supplies from private organisations and well-meaning individuals.
Trained search and rescue canines have accompanied a number of private and government rescue teams to Turkey. Swiss rescue service Redog has been reported to be sending as many as 14 dogs. Animal squads were also sent from Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, India, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States. In Africa, only Libya and Algeria have been reported to be sending teams to help with the search and rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria. There have also been no official reports of Nigeria offering any kind of aid to survivors of the quake in both Turkey and Syria. Nigeria is not known to offer manpower to aid countries that have been affected by natural disasters. The National Emergency Management Agency, itself lacks manpower and the expertise to engage in this kind of search and rescue missions.
But for many countries, the opportunity to send search and rescue teams is an experience worth having. This is what builds capacity beyond the immense rewards of saving lives and providing succor survivors.
In our opinion, what happened in Turkey and Syria should serve as a lesson to Nigeria. The water business is restructuring the earth’s crust. Experts have warned that the practice is laying the foundation for disaster. We hope someone is listening and learning.
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