Screams and rubble in Kahramanmaras, the ‘zero ground’ of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

Chaos and devastation engulf Kahramanmaras. This region, located about 600 kilometers southeast of Ankarahas been the epicenter of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, an area that has been completely destroyed.

Search and rescue teams continue working against the clock to find all the survivors under the rubble. “Currently, there are more than 2,000 professional rescue teams and more than 13,000 personnel in the field”, explained the mayor of the city, Hayrettin Güngör.

Some search tasks that are not being easy at all. The area is full of rubble due to the large number of buildings that have been left completely destroyed. A situation made worse by low temperatures they are experiencing in the region.

The images shared on social networks of the before and after this area record the devastating consequences of this earthquake, which has had numerous aftershocks.

Despair grows because in some collapsed buildings the voices of survivors can be heard, but they cannot be helped due to the lack of specialized equipment. “No one in the city can enter any building due to the danger of collapse. Going to the toilet, something so far simple, is a very big problem. There is no water at home or at gas stations,” HalkTV explains about the situation.

“People try to warm up in their cars, but they can’t refill the tank because there is no fuel at the service stations,” he adds. Yildirim Kurt, a farmer in the Nurhak district of Kahramanmaras, told EFE by phone that until now no help had arrived to his small town.

Small stories that record the desperation that they are living in this region where the voices of some survivors continue to be heard while rescue time is running out. A tragedy that is leaving devastating images of deceased people who cannot be buried. In fact, many of them are piled up in state hospitals such as the one in the Elbistan district.

Mustafa Kara, who lost his wife in Kahramanmaras in the collapse of a nine-story building, shows his outrage on Halk TV: “Is this state such a small thing? There is nothing. We cannot bury our dead. There are corpses everywhere“.

“More than 900 buildings have collapsed. If each one has between eight and ten apartments, how many people are under the rubble? There is no electricity, no gasoline, people loot supermarkets. There is no food, no milk for the children” , Mustafa Kara complains.

The extreme temperatures and A landscape dominated by snow makes people who have managed to survive the earthquake look for a safe haven in which to settle to isolate themselves from the cold. In fact, many have chosen for making small bonfires to be able to warm up when not being able to enter the buildings that have been left standing due to the danger of collapse.