Death toll tops 21,000 from Turkey-Syria quake as hopes fade

The bitter cold hindered the search for thousands of collapsed buildings and posed a threat to the lives of many earthquake victims without shelter or access to drinking water, according to the World Health Organization chief, who was en route to Syria.

An indication of the scope of the tragedy was the fact that relatives were left combing through body bags set up in a hospital parking lot in the southern city of Antakya, Turkey, in search of missing relatives.

Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family, stated, “We found my aunt, but not my uncle.”

Now that the 72-hour window that experts consider to be the most likely time to save lives has passed, the chances of finding survivors have decreased.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck early on Monday while people were sleeping in a region where the Syrian civil war had already caused a lot of loss and displacement.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, said on Thursday that he was leaving for Syria.

Tedros posted a tweet that read, “On my way to Syria, where WHO is supporting essential health care in the areas affected by the recent earthquake.”

An official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP that an aid convoy, the first since the earthquake, reached rebel-held northwestern Syria earlier in the day, potentially saving lives.

Temperatures below freezing The crossing is the only way for humanitarian aid from the United Nations to reach civilians without passing through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

Hospitals had already been destroyed, the economy had collapsed, and there were electricity, fuel, and water shortages after a decade of civil war and Russian-Syrian aerial bombardment.

Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, pleaded with the Security Council to grant permission for the establishment of new cross-border points for the delivery of humanitarian aid between Turkey and Syria.

As part of a nearly a decade-old cross-border aid operation authorized by the Security Council, four million people living in rebel-held areas of northwest Syria had to rely on the Bab al-Hawa crossing.

Guterres stated, “This is the moment of unity; it is not a moment to politicize or divide.” However, it is evident that we require massive support.

Early on Thursday, temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep dropped to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit), but thousands of families spent the night in cars or improvised tents because they were too afraid to return to their homes or were banned from doing so.

Because it was warmer than sitting in a tent, parents carried their children in blankets along the city streets near the earthquake’s epicenter on Monday.

Schools, gyms, mosques, and some stores are now open at night. However, there are still few beds available, and thousands of people spend the night in cars with the engines running to keep warm.

Melek Halici said, “I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this,” as she and her two-year-old daughter watched rescuers work into the night.

According to international rescuers, the severe cold has forced them to choose between carrying out their work and using the limited fuel supplies they have.

Athanassios Balafas, a Greek fire official, stated in Athens, “Not a single person has failed to mention this, the cold.” The race against time Naturally, we decided to continue operating.

On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that the government’s handling of the disaster had some “deficiencies.”

The quake on Monday was Turkey’s largest since 33,000 people were killed in the eastern Erzincan province in 1939.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Monday claimed the lives of 17,674 people in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 21,051.

Experts are concerned that the number will continue to skyrocket.

The government’s handling of the disaster has stoked outrage.

In Adiyaman province, one of the hardest-hit areas, Hakan Tanriverdi told AFP, “People who didn’t die from the earthquake were left to die in the cold.”

The search for additional survivors has not been abandoned by thousands of local and international searchers despite the challenges.

When the earthquake struck their hotel in Adiyaman, southeast Turkey, two dozen children and some of their parents from northern Cyprus—39 Turkish Cypriots—were on a school trip to participate in a volleyball tournament.

The government of their home region has declared a national mobilization, and they have hired a private plane to participate in the children’s search and rescue.

Ilhami Bilgen, whose brother Hasan played volleyball, looked at the terrifying pile of heavy bricks and concrete slabs that was the hotel.

“Over there is a hollow. It’s possible that the kids crawled into it, according to Bilgen. We haven’t given up hope just yet.

At a donor conference, the World Bank announced that it would provide Turkey with $1.78 billion to assist in relief and recovery efforts.

According to the bank, two existing projects in Turkey will provide immediate assistance totaling $780 million, and an additional $1 billion in operations is being prepared to support affected individuals throughout recovery and reconstruction.

According to Fitch Ratings, the quake’s economic cost is likely to exceed $2 billion and could reach $4 billion or more, in addition to the staggering human toll.