ISKENDERUN, Turkey – It hung in the air over the streets of the Turkish city of Iskenderun on Monday. The smell of death. A week after two earthquakes rocked the region, dramatic rescues were becoming infrequent, replaced instead by a grim recovery of bodies crushed under the rubble of the quake’s terrible force. The hard-hit city was teeming with emergency crews busy working with heavy construction machinery at many sites.
The ritual is chilling. In a place where we were, the bulldozer would be in operation and a body would be found. The call goes out for relatives to identify him. The howls of horror and pain are next. The victim was carried in a body bag to be placed in a wooden coffin and taken away in a van from the morgue. We saw this happen multiple times.
The aftermath of major earthquakes has taken several turns since we arrived in Turkey last week. Our first stop on Tuesday was Kahramanmaras, the closest city to the epicenter of the first major earthquake. After a deceptively uneventful drive through its mostly untouched outskirts, the full force of the natural disaster became apparent with one building after another folding in on itself.
Kahramanmaras is the closest Turkish city to the epicenter of the first major earthquake. So far, some 35,000 deaths have been reported from the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
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Our live position that night was near a gas station; a beacon of life for freshly bruised victims, who lined up to buy gasoline for their home generators when there was no power in the city, to charge their phones with the station’s electricity and quick heating.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the region was affected by snow and windswept sub-zero temperatures. The villagers huddled around the fires to keep warm.
The next day we were in Gazientep, the largest city near the earthquake. Usually bustling, this day was eerily quiet. Some buildings had been demolished. Most had been damaged. Force almost all residents to stay out of their homes and keep shops and businesses closed.
A mother watches as her son is rescued from the rubble in Gazientep. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
The search for survivors at the site we covered was especially poignant. Waiting outside, among many, was the mother of a 17-year-old boy trapped in the rubble. She had made it out alive. She talked to us and prayed that he would survive. Two days later, her prayers were answered. Rescuers pulled him out looking and sounding in great shape. His mother swore that she would never let him leave her side.
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Gazientep, the largest city closest to the earthquake. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
On Thursday we travel to the hill town of Adiyaman. USAID had brought search and rescue teams from the Fairfax, Virginia, and Los Angeles fire departments there to help. It was very necessary. The place was probably the worst run by a struggling Turkish government we had ever seen. Everyone scrambled to find someone alive as they slipped on loose stones, dragged debris with their bare hands, prayed and cheered at any sign of life.
In fact, we were pressured into participating in the mission, giving a team from Los Angeles, their entire team, and a sniffer dog, Diva, a lift in our 18-seat van. After a tortuous three-hour drive through streets that felt like post-war Berlin, we came upon a collapsed structure. Another team thought there was life there. A circular blade saw was used to cut a passage through the concrete. Camera and sensors were placed. But after sadly sniffing around for a bit, Diva the dog quickly decided there was no hope.
As recovery efforts continued, the humanitarian crisis escalated. On Saturday, we went to a tent city set up by the Turkish army to accommodate the homeless from the earthquake in the city of Sanliurfa along with those who are afraid to stay in their damaged houses amid all the aftershocks. We spoke to a 17-year-old girl who explained to us in perfect English that she was sleeping in her family’s apartment on the sixth floor of a building when the earthquake struck. Her apartment fell two stories trapping her and her family inside. She was lucky. She was rescued six hours later along with the rest of her family. With just a scratch. Tonight she had a smile for us.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was touring the site that day. We told him what the critics had been saying, that his government had not prepared enough and was not doing enough to help the victims of the earthquake. He responded harshly through his translator: “Of course there are deaths, it’s an earthquake.” We pressed him on whether his government could have done more, to which he replied: “We are trying to solve the problems.” Afterwards, he left with his entourage.
One issue that arose Sunday was that perhaps at least some of this carnage could have been avoided if the contractors had followed earthquake-safe zoning rules. More than 100 builders were cited by Turkish government officials as suspects. We were at a site in Adana, a large city on the west side of the earthquake zone, where a 14-story apartment building had completely collapsed while other buildings were still standing. Relatives of those killed were looking through the rubble, looking at material that didn’t appear to measure up, including a man whose brother and family were killed. “I’m angry,” he told us, “but that doesn’t matter. They’re dead.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces criticism over his government’s lack of earthquake preparedness. (Greg Palkot/New Fox)
Which brings us to Iskenderun and this day’s scene of death and destruction. As the natural disaster turned into a humanitarian catastrophe. We visited an emergency clinic that had been set up opposite the city’s main hospital, too damaged by the earthquakes to care for patients. After the first wave of direct injuries from the quakes, such as broken arms and legs, they were now dealing with a new wave of damage. Aftershock injuries. Near suffocation from inhaling dust and sand. “It’s bad,” one patient told us, “but we are strong.”
That clinic was bolstered by a large Indian aid, medical and security presence. Part of the global outpouring of aid that is helping Turkey cope. But sadly, across a nearby border, in northern Syria, also affected by the earthquake, the landscape is in shambles. An international community that the war-torn country has kept at arm’s length, providing little help, the people there fighting.
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I have covered many natural disasters around the world for Fox News. This ranks up there as one of the worst. My personal takeout? First of all, how brave, loving and kind the Turks are to each other, even to us outsiders, when faced with devastation. Second, how there must be a serious examination of what Ankara did or failed to do, which contributed to these horrors. Ultimately, no matter how sophisticated and technologically in control we think we are, the forces around us, our natural world, will always have the last word.
Pray for the people of Turkey and Syria.
