Turkey earthquake: Scores rescued after hours under rubble
January 26, 2020
More than 40 people have been pulled to safety after spending hours trapped under collapsed buildings following Friday's earthquake. Hopes are fading for dozens of others still imprisoned under concrete ruins.
Image: Reuters/U. Bektas
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Emergency services in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig continued efforts on Sunday to rescue residents from collapsed buildings after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook the region and left at least 38 people dead.
A total of 45 people had been pulled alive from under the rubble, officials said. But hopes of finding more survivors are fading as rescue teams struggle to comb through debris in freezing temperatures.
Many people in Elazig province and nearby Malatya spent several hours, and some of them days, under piles of rubble before rescue crews were able to reach them.
A 35-year-old woman named Ayse Yildiz was trapped for 28 hours under her apartment building in Elazig with her 2-year-old daughter, Yusra. According to Turkish media, rescue workers pulled the young girl from the wreckage at around 8:30 p.m. local time (1730 UTC) on Saturday, but it took nearly five more hours to rescue Yildiz, whose arm was trapped under a pile of rubble.
Another woman, named Azize, was pulled from the rubble after being trapped for 17 hours in Elazig's Mustafapasa neighborhood. She had contacted authorities and spoke to a worker by telephone during the rescue, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Twelve-year-old Mirac Disli was rescued after 11 hours but later died in hospital, Turkish media said. He was trapped with his six-months-pregnant mother, Pinar, and his father, Meric, who were rescued 12 hours after the earthquake and were receiving treatment.
Elazig hit hard
Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said 18 people died and more than 600 were injured in Elazig, the region hit the hardest by the earthquake. The epicenter of the 6.8 magnitude quake was in the small lakeside town of Sivrice, approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the city of Elazig.
As well as the overall death toll of 35, more than 1,600 people have been injured. AFAD said 76 buildings were destroyed and more than 1,000 were damaged in the quake.
In a press conference in Istanbul on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said every effort was being made to alleviate conditions. He also promised housing for displaced residents as soon as possible.
"Turkey has begun to heal the wounds of this great disaster in unity, togetherness and coming together," he said. He added that "every effort was made to ensure citizens whose homes have collapsed or been damaged will not suffer in this winter period."
Haiti struggles 10 years after catastrophic earthquake
A decade after an earthquake leveled buildings in Haiti in January 2010, many people in the country still struggle against poverty and corruption. But there is still some hope that change is coming.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. N. Chery
A country in ruins
On January 12, 2010, shortly before 5 p.m., a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The destruction was catastrophic. In some areas, 90% of buildings collapsed. At least 200,000 people were killed and more than a million were made homeless. It caused $6.6 billion (€5.9 billion) worth of damage – more than the country's entire gross domestic product.
Image: AP
Disaster in a crisis-ridden nation
January 2011. Crosses on a mass grave near the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake hit a country already plagued with crises. In 2010, Haiti was the poorest nation in the western hemisphere — and it still is. It suffers from overpopulation and corruption. Natural disasters are not uncommon. After the earthquake, thousands more died in a cholera epidemic.
Image: A.Shelley/Getty Images
Global solidarity
A carefree moment in a camp for earthquake victims in March 2010. Help came from the UN, NGOs, and private individuals. Money for reconstruction flowed in from around the world. Bert Hoffmann, a political scientist at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, told DW that many aid organizations were very effective at a local level, for example in building houses, supporting people in need.
Image: AP
Problematic aid
US food aid donations provided short-term help to those affected during the emergency and immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Hoffmann said. "However, in the long term, free rice from the USA massively bankrupted the Haitian rice farmers," he added. "This kind of aid did not create sustainable structures for the country; it increased its dependence."
Image: AP
Crisis after the crisis
Waiting for work: Ten years after the earthquake, quality of life for the majority of Haitians has not improved. More than half the population lives below the poverty line of $2 per day. According to the German aid organization Welthungerhilfe, 35% of Haitians rely on food aid. The aid organization Doctors Without Borders said basic health care is inadequate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell
Tödliche Proteste
For the past year and a half, mass unemployment, inflation, criminality and cronyism have driven Haitians onto the streets — as seen here in November. Many people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters. Pirmin Spiegel, director-general of the German Catholic development agency MISEREOR, recently warned that there was an increasing danger that civil war would break out in Haiti.
Image: imago images/Agencia EFE/J. M. Herve
Moise refuses to go
The anger on the streets is directed at President Jovenel Moise (center), in office since February 2017. The opposition accuses him of embezzling money from a solidarity fund. Moise rejects the allegations and refuses to resign. When the Haitian parliament reconvenes on January 13, most of its representatives will have come to the end of their mandate. Moise could, in theory, rule by decree.
The opposition is divided, but activists want to keep fighting for change. "We need a government that responds to our needs," said 31-year-old Rese Domini (photo) from the organization MONEGAF. In December, Velina Charlier, a 39-year-old activist, told DW that she was demanding, "Moise's resignation, an anti-corruption trial and a radical change in the system."
Image: Reuters/V. Baeriswyl
'Europe is silent'
Aid organizations are calling on the international community to take action. Local products should be prioritized for food aid "to stimulate the domestic economy," Welthungerhilfe explained in November. MISEREOR's director-general called on Germany and the European Union to push for political change in Haiti.
December 2019, Port-au-Prince: Two friends on the beach. Political scientist Bert Hoffmann said the ongoing crisis should not obscure the existence of "many family and local structures that are functioning" in Haiti. The Caribbean state is "not hell on earth," he said. "It's a very poor but generally peaceful country that has a great culture."