Turkey-Syria earthquake, balance is a nightmare. But there are miracle rescues

The death toll from the earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey reached 11,700. To be precise, the official count is 9,057 in Turkey and 2,643 in Syria: frightening numbers, but unfortunately still tentative. In Turkey there are tens of thousands of wounded, while 60,000 men and women from the gendarmerie, army, Red Cross, civil protection, non-governmental organizations and rescue teams arriving from dozens of countries continue to sift through the rubble. The Turkish rescue machine moved immediately, more than 9,000 people were rescued alive but tens of thousands were injured, searches are still ongoing and the death toll is inevitably destined to get worse. The situation in Syria is more uncertain. President Bashar al Assad’s regime even tried to take advantage of the earthquake by launching an attack on one of the earthquake-affected areas just hours after the catastrophe: there were no casualties, but the attack highlights the fact that many of the collapsed houses in the north of the country are outside. from Damascus control and data provided by the government does not include several areas in the north. In Turkey, more than 70,000 tents for families have been set up and around 30,000 people are operating a relief machine that has had to deal with very severe weather and an emergency that affects 10 cities, often driving distances from each other.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived on the scene of the disaster just today and spoke calling for unity and calling those who speak of shortcomings in relief efforts on social media as “deprived of honor”. It fell to the president to update the tragic balance sheet. Erdogan promised reconstruction within a year and reiterated that he would not allow his citizens to remain homeless. But today was also the day of miracles. A woman whose name is currently only known, Zeliha, was pulled alive from the rubble after 53 hours in the town of Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicenter. Just 9 hours earlier in Antakya, Hatay Province, a two-year-old boy, Muhammed, was pulled out and found alive after 44 hours under rubble. The little boy received water from the hands of the rescuers who patiently removed him from the hill to which the building where he lived was reduced. Still in Hatay, a young teacher was rescued at dawn, after 49 hours spent in the rubble. But the most incredible rescue concerns a two-month-old baby, found alive in the rubble of a house in Kahramanmaras 48 hours after it collapsed. The little boy emerged from the rubble sucking his finger amidst the jubilation and emotion of the rescuers directed by his mother Ceren, who was pulled out alive from the rubble shortly before without having lost hope of being able to hug her son again. It took two hours to extract the newborn, whose rescue soon circulated on the web, giving a moment of hope to a country in mourning for one of the worst tragedies in its young history.