MASSIVE 7.8 Earthquake Jolts Turkey

More than 500 dead as 7.8-magnitude earthquake hits southern Turkey and Syria
By Rhea Mogul, Gul Tuysuz, Isil Sariyuce and Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN
Updated 3:06 AM EST, Mon February 6, 2023

Rescuers are racing to find survivors trapped beneath rubble either side of the Turkey-Syrian border as the death toll from one of the strongest earthquakes to hit Turkey in 100 years rose beyond 500 people.

Nearly 3,000 others were injured as the 7.8-magnitude quake shook residents from their beds around 4 a.m. Monday morning, sending tremors as far away as Lebanon and Israel.

The earthquake’s epicenter was 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Video from the scene in Turkey showed day breaking over rows of collapsed buildings, some with apartments exposed to the elements as people huddled in the freezing cold beside them, waiting for help.

In Turkey, at least 284 people were killed and more than 2,300 injured, according to Vice President Fuat Oktay. In neighboring Syria, at least 237 people died and more than 630 were injured, Syrian state news agency SANA reported citing a Ministry of Health official. The deaths were reported in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus.

Dozens of people are trapped under rubble, according to the “White Helmets” group, officially known as Syria Civil Defense, a humanitarian organization formed to rescue people injured in conflict. Much of northwestern Syria, which borders Turkey, is controlled by anti-government forces amid a bloody civil war that began in 2011.

Monday’s quake is believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, when an earthquake of the same magnitude killed 30,000 people, according to the USGS. Earthquakes of this magnitude are rare, with fewer than five occurring each year on average, anywhere in the world. Seven quakes with magnitude 7.0 or greater have struck Turkey in the past 25 years – but Monday’s is the most powerful.

Karl Lang, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech University’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told CNN the area hit by the quake Monday is prone to seismic activity. “It’s a very large fault zone, but this is a larger earthquake than they’ve experienced any time in recent memory,” Lang said.’

Journalist Eyad Kourdi, who lives in Gaziantep and was staying with his parents when the earthquake struck early Monday, said “it felt like it would never be over.”

When the shaking stopped, Kourdi and his parents walked out of their home still wearing their pajamas, he said.

With several inches of snow on the ground, they waited outside in the rain for about 30 minutes before he could go back inside to grab coats and boots.

Strong aftershocks have been felt in southern and central Turkey. About 11 minutes after the main quake hit, the strongest aftershock of 6.7 magnitude hit about 32 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the main quake’s epicenter. Another intense aftershock with a magnitude of 5.6 then occurred 19 minutes after the main quake.

Kourdi said there were up to eight “very strong” aftershocks in under a minute after the 7.8 magnitude quake struck, causing belongings in his home to fall to the ground. Many of his neighbors had left their homes following the quake, he said.

Photos showing the true scale of the disaster emerged as day broke in Turkey. Entire buildings have been flattened, with metal rods scattered across the streets. Cars have toppled over, while bulldozers work to clear the debris.

A winter storm in the region is exacerbating the disaster, according to CNN meteorologists.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are impacted by this. It is cold. It is rainy. Roads could be impacted, that means your food, your livelihood, the care for your children, the care for your family,” CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis said.

“Anything as far as crops or anything growing across this region will be impacted as well. The ramifications of this are broad and will impact this region for weeks, and months.”

Search and rescue teams have been dispatched to the south of the country, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said. AFAD, the disaster agency, said it had requested international help through the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), the European Union’s humanitarian program.

Nearly 1,000 search and rescue volunteers have been deployed from Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, along with dogs, trucks and aid, according to its governor, Ali Yerlikaya.

“Sorry for our loss. I wish our injured a speedy recovery,” Yerlikaya wrote on Twitter.

The governor of Gaziantep, Davut Gul, said on Twitter that “the earthquake was felt strongly in our city,” and advised the public to wait outside their homes and stay calm.

“Please let’s wait outside without panic. Let’s not use our cars. Let’s not crowd the main roads. Let’s not keep the phones busy,” he said.

Gaziantep province has a number of small- and medium-sized cities, with a sizable refugee population, according to Brookings Institute fellow Asli Aydintasbas.

“Some of these areas are rather poor. Some are more richer, urban areas … but other parts that we’re talking about that seem to have been devastated, are relatively lower income areas,” she said.

Video from the city of Diyarbakir, to the northeast of Gaziantep, shows rescue workers frantically trying to pull survivors out of the rubble.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the quake was felt in many parts of the country.

“I convey my best wishes to all our citizens who were affected by the earthquake that occurred in Kahramanmaraş and was felt in many parts of our country. All our relevant units are on alert under the coordination of AFAD,” Erdogan wrote on Twitter.

Messages of condolences and support started pouring in Monday morning as world leaders woke to the news of the deadly earthquake.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was “profoundly concerned” about the destruction in Syria and Turkey.

“I have been in touch with Turkish officials to relay that we stand ready to provide any & all needed assistance. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with Turkiye,” Sullivan wrote on Twitter.

Pics and video at https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/europe/earthquake-hits-turkey-intl-hnk/index.html

Temple wrote:

That;s beyond tragic..

we have way below zero and tons of snow
but we are warm and safe,
no earthquakes no hurricanes etc,, we have it quite good.

I've got the same thing except for the way below zero and tons of snow part

Death toll surpasses 4,000 after devastating earthquake rocks Turkey, Syria
The death toll in Turkey and Syria soared past 4,000 following a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake and a series of violent aftershocks that jolted the region.
By Kevin Byrne, AccuWeather senior editor & Allison Finch, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Feb 5, 2023 7:30 PM MST | Updated Feb 6, 2023 7:46 PM MST

The death toll soared past 4,000 in Turkey and Syria following a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit southern Turkey shortly after 4 a.m. local time Monday. Frantic rescue efforts were underway and hundreds of people were reportedly still trapped in the rubble as of Tuesday morning, local time, according to The Associated Press.

The damage caused by the massive earthquake and its violent aftershocks was catastrophic. Over 5,600 buildings were knocked over in Turkey alone, according to Turkish Emergency Management. As of Tuesday morning, local time, at least 4,000 people were killed, according to AP. The number of people injured across Turkey and Syria was said to be in the thousands, including more than 13,000 in Turkey alone.

The quake had a depth of about 11 miles (17.9 kilometers) and struck about 20 miles east-southeast of the major Turkish city of Gaziantep, which has a population of more than 1 million. A 7.5 magnitude aftershock Monday afternoon was not as deep, 6.2 miles (10.0 kilometers) and struck about 2.5 miles south-southeast of Ekinözü, Turkey.

About 10 minutes after the initial 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred, a 6.7 magnitude temblor was reported. A separate 5.6 magnitude temblor was also reported near the town of Nurdagi, which is home to more than 12,000 people. Nurdagi is located about 16 miles west of the epicenter of the 7.8 earthquake. In total, at least 120 aftershocks followed the initial quake, including the 7.5 earthquake.

“Because the debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings in the earthquake zone, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to the AP. “Hopefully, we will leave these disastrous days behind us in unity and solidarity as a country and a nation.”

Erdogan would later declare a period of national mourning that is expected to last for seven days.

More than 7,800 people were rescued across 10 provinces in Turkey, the AP reported. Among those still missing is former Chelsea and Newcastle soccer forward Christian Atsu, now playing with Turkish club Hatayspor, after teammates and members of the club's technical staff were reportedly pulled from rubble.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that he was in touch with Erdogan as well as Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu. Stoltenberg pledged full support for Turkey, a NATO member, and said NATO allies were mobilizing support.

United States government officials, including President Joe Biden, expressed condolences and said that the U.S. would help with recovery efforts.

“Jill and I were deeply saddened by the news of the devastating earthquakes that have thus far claimed thousands of lives in Turkiye and Syria,” Biden said in a statement on Monday.

Biden noted in the statement that his administration is working closely with Turkish officials and U.S.-supported humanitarian partners in Syria to respond to those who have been affected by the quake.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press statement on Monday that he has directed his team to remain in close contact with Turkish allies and humanitarian partners in the coming days to determine the best course of action to help and support the affected regions.

“The United States expresses our deep sadness at the tragic loss of life and destruction across Türkiye and Syria from today’s earthquakes,” Blinken said. “We are determined to do all that we can to help those affected by these earthquakes in the days, weeks, and months ahead.”

Monday evening, it was reported that Los Angeles County Fire would be sending rescue crews to Turkey, with more than 80 firefighters being debriefed on the situation.

The World Health Organization said it was ready to support the Turkish Ministry of Health in the ongoing humanitarian response. “Heavy snow, rainfall and electricity outages aggravate the situation of people waiting outdoors for the aftershocks to end,” the WHO said on Twitter.

The WHO said its network of emergency medical teams has been activated to provide “essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable affected by the earthquake.”

Some of the tremendous damage from the quake was captured in a dramatic video from Diyarbakir, Turkey, Monday morning. The video shows an eight-story apartment building that collapsed into a pile of rubble with rescuers crowding the perimeter. Debris was scattered all around the site of the collapse as first responders worked quickly to pull injured people from the wreckage.

The Hatay Airport, an international airport located in southwestern Turkey, suspended operations after its runway was significantly damaged by the quake. Photos and videos shared on Twitter showed a massive tear in the middle of the airport’s only runway.

The Gaziantep Castle, a historical site and tourist attraction in southeastern Turkey, was also severely damaged during the quake on Monday, CNN reported.

Light shaking was felt in Ankara, Turkey's capital city, which is located about 318 miles to the northwest. Shaking was also observed in Lebanon. In Israel, the quake was felt around Tel Aviv. According to the USGS, shaking was even reported as far away as Egypt, around the Cairo area.

A storm that passed nearly directly over the epicenter in Gaziantep Monday produced steady rain in southern Turkey and northern Syria, hampering rescue and recovery efforts. Cold temperatures in quake-impacted areas will also take a toll on the tens of thousands who have been left homeless, with AccuWeather RealFeel temperatures dipping down to 16 degrees Fahrenheit Tuesday evening in Gaziantep.

So far in Gaziantep, people have taken refuge in shopping malls, stadiums and community centers. Mosques were also opened to provide shelter.

"Temperatures will be cooling off behind a cold front that passes through the area ... by Tuesday, any rain showers will have changed to snow showers, though much of southeast Turkey will be seeing these snow showers coming to and end," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert explained.

"It looks to remain cold over the country through the end of the week, with just spotty snow showers in southern parts of Turkey," Reppert continued. Northern regions of the country, near the Black Sea, will see some sea-effect snow occur.

Death toll now stands at 6,200.

Such is life....

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

Death toll now stands at 6,200.

Such is life....

...and death ... WOW!

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

///


Anyone hear from Deport lately?

Nope.

BTW, death toll is now at 11,000.

More than 20,000 people are now known to have died after Monday's earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria

BBC LIVE SITE: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-64565412

Turkey-Syria earthquake: 5 family members pulled from rubble after 129 hours as death toll tops 25K
February 11, 2023

Rescuers in Turkey pulled a family of five to safety on Saturday after they had spent five days in their collapsed home following an earthquake that is responsible for the deaths nearly 25,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

The mother and daughter, Havva and Fatmagul Aslan, were the first retrieved from the debris in the town of Nurdagi, according to HaberTurk.

Later on, the teams reached the father, Hasan Aslan, but he insisted that his other children be saved first.

As the father was brought out after 129 hours under the rubble, rescuers cheered: “God is Great!”

Rescues brought slivers of hope amid the devastation from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake. The tremor collapsed thousands of buildings, leaving millions of people homeless. Hours later, another earthquake that was nearly just as strong caused more destruction hours later.

Another 80,000 were injured, some of which are treated by the Indian Army’s medical assistance team in a temporary field hospital in Iskenderun.

Sukru Canbulat was at the hospital, his left leg badly injured with deep bruising, contusions and lacerations. After receiving first aid, he was released without proper treatment for his injuries.

"I buried (everyone that I lost), then I came here,” he said, counting his dead relatives: “My daughter is dead, my sibling died, my aunt and her daughter died, and the wife of her son” who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.

Rescuers have shifted to thermal cameras to assist in the effort, and temperatures have remained below freezing across the region.

The United Nations refugee agency estimated that as many as 5.3 million people have been left homeless in Syria, with the first aid convoy crossing from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, according to state news agency SANA.

The total dead in Syria was 3,533, while Turkish officials counted 21,043 dead through Saturday.

The opposition Syrian Civil Defense – also known as White Helmets – said Saturday that it “is almost impossible to find people alive.”

Turkey arrests building contractors 6 days after quakes
Associated Press
JUSTIN SPIKE AND SUZAN FRASER
February 12, 2023, 2:12 AM

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — As rescuers still pulled a lucky few from the rubble six days after a pair of earthquakes devastated southeast Turkey and northern Syria, Turkish officials detained or issued arrest warrants for some 130 people allegedly involved in the construction of buildings that toppled down and crushed their occupants.

The death toll from Monday’s quakes stood at 28,191 — with another 80,000-plus injured — as of Sunday morning and was certain to rise as bodies kept emerging.

As despair also bred rage at the agonizingly slow rescue efforts, the focus turned to who was to blame for not better preparing people in the earthquake-prone region that includes an area of Syria that was already suffering from years of civil war.

Even though Turkey has, on paper, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings slumped onto their side or pancaked downward onto residents.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said late on Saturday that warrants have been issued for the detention of 131 people suspected to being responsible for collapsed buildings.

Turkey’s justice minister has vowed to punish anyone responsible, and prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence on materials used in constructions. The quakes were powerful, but victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming bad construction for multiplying the devastation.

Authorities arrested two people in the province of Gaziantep on Sunday who are suspected of having cut down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

A day earlier, Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced the planned establishment of “Earthquake Crimes Investigation” bureaus. The bureaus would aim to identify contractors and others responsible for building works, gather evidence, instruct experts including architects, geologists and engineers, and check building permits and occupation permits.

A building contractor was detained by authorities on Friday at Istanbul airport before he could board a flight out of the country. He was the contractor of a luxury 12-story building in the historic city of Antakya, in Hatay province, the collapse of which left an untold number of dead.

The detentions could help direct public anger toward builders and contractors, deflecting attention away from local and state officials who allowed the apparently sub-standard constructions to go ahead. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, already burdened by an economic downturn and high inflation, faces parliamentary and presidential elections in May.

Survivors, many of whom lost loved ones, have turned their frustration and anger also at authorities. Rescue crews have been overwhelmed by the widespread damage which has impacted roads and airports, making it even more difficult to race against the clock.

Erdogan acknowledged earlier in the week that the initial response has been hampered by the extensive damage. He said the worst-affected area was 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and was home to 13.5 million people in Turkey. During a tour of quake-damaged cities Saturday, Erdogan said a disaster of this scope was rare, and again referred to it as the “disaster of the century.”

Rescuers, including crews from other countries, continued to probe the rubble in hope of finding additional survivors who could yet beat the increasingly long odds. Thermal cameras were used to probe the piles of concrete and metal, while rescuers demanded silence so that they could hear the voices of the trapped.

A 6-year-old boy was removed from the debris of his home in Adiyaman city on Sunday, 151 hours after the quake. The rescue was broadcast live by HaberTurk television, showing the child wrapped in a space blanket and put into an ambulance. An exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took deep breaths as a group of women could be heard crying in joy.

Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, posted a video of a young girl in a navy blue jumper who was rescued. “Good news at the 150th hour. Rescued a little while ago by crews. There is always hope!” he tweeted.

The efforts of a team of Italian and Turkish rescuers also paid off when they removed a 35-year-old man from the wreckage in the hard-hit city of Antakya. The man, Mustafa Sarigul, appeared to be unscathed as he was being transported on a stretcher to an ambulance, 149 hours after the first quakes, private NTV television reported.

Overnight, a child was also freed in the town of Nizip, in Gaziantep, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, while a 32-year woman, was rescued from the ruins of a eight-story building in the city of Antakya. The woman, a teacher named Meltem, asked for tea as soon as she emerged, according to NTV.

In Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the first 7.8 quake that struck early Monday morning, efforts were underway to reach a survivor detected by sniffer dogs beneath a now-pancaked seven-story building, NTV reported.

Those found alive, however, remained the rare exception.

A large makeshift graveyard was under construction in Antakya’s outskirts on Saturday. Backhoes and bulldozers dug pits in the field as trucks and ambulances loaded with black body bags arrived continuously. The hundreds of graves, spaced no more than 3 feet (a meter) apart, were marked with simple wooden planks set vertically in the ground.

The picture is less clear of the plight across the border in Syria.

The death toll in Syria’s northwestern rebel-held region has reached 2,166, according to the rescue worker group the White Helmets. The overall death toll in Syria stood at 3,553 on Saturday, though the 1,387 deaths reported for government-held parts of the country hadn’t been updated in days.

Another strong quake hits near Turkey-Syria border, rattling devastated area
BY EMILY MAE CZACHOR
FEBRUARY 20, 2023 / 2:33 PM / CBS NEWS

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck southern Turkey on Monday, near its shared border with northern Syria. The quake, centered in Turkey's Hatay province, came two weeks after the same region was devastated by a series of earthquakes and aftershocks that killed more than 46,000 people and reduced towns and city blocks to rubble.

Monday's earthquake was originally reported as a magnitude 6.4 with a depth of 10 kilometers by the United States Geological Survey, which has since revised the measurement to 6.3.

New 5.6 magnitude earthquake hits Turkey, killing one person
February 27, 2023

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook southern Turkey on Monday — three weeks after a catastrophic temblor devastated the region — causing some already damaged buildings to collapse and killing at least one person, the country’s disaster management agency, AFAD, said.

Another 69 people were injured as a result of the latest earthquake which was centered in the town of Yesilyurt in Malatya province, AFAD’s chief Yunus Sezer told reporters. More than two dozen buildings collapsed.

Yesilyurt’s mayor, Mehmet Cinar, told HaberTurk television that a father and daughter were trapped beneath the rubble of a four-story building in the town. The pair had entered the damaged building to collect belongings.

Elsewhere in Malatya, search-and-rescue teams were sifting through the rubble of two damaged buildings that toppled on top of some parked cars, HaberTurk reported.

Malatya was among 11 Turkish provinces hit by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6.

That quake led to more than 48,000 deaths in both countries as well as the collapse or serious damage of 173,000 buildings in Turkey.

AFAD’s chief urged people not to enter damaged buildings saying strong aftershocks continue to pose a risk. Close to 10,000 aftershocks have hit the region affected by the quake since Feb. 6.

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

What a shame...


...that all those earthquakes didn't hit California instead.

Still hoping you'll get that beachfront closer to your house, eh Ollie???

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

Still hoping you'll get that beachfront closer to your house, eh Ollie???

Yup