Following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria, volunteers and rescuers are battling freezing rain and below-freezing temperatures to locate survivors.
During the icy night of Tuesday, rescue workers in Turkey and Syria used only their hands to dig through the rubble of thousands of destroyed buildings in search of survivors.

After a flurry of powerful earthquakes near the Turkey-Syria border, the largest of which measured a massive 7.8 magnitude, the confirmed death toll in both countries has risen above 4,300.

Disaster response teams from Turkey and Syria say that more than 5,600 buildings have collapsed across several cities. Many of the multi-story apartment blocks had residents sleeping when the first quake hit.
Witnesses in the southeast Turkish city of Kahramanmaras struggled to comprehend the catastrophe’s scope.

Melisa Salman, a reporter who is 23 years old, stated, “We thought it was the apocalypse.” We had never experienced anything like that before that.

On Tuesday, the relief organization AFAD in Turkey reported 2,921 deaths in that nation alone, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 4,365.
Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that up to 20,000 people may have died, raising the possibility that the death toll will unavoidably rise.

Rescue workers working their way through the rubble in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is home to a large number of Syrian refugees from the country’s decade-long civil war, screamed, cried, and pleaded for safety as another building fell without warning nearby.

The initial quake’s magnitude was so great that it was felt as far away as Greenland, and its impact was significant enough to have prompted a worldwide response.

Despite the fact that freezing rain and temperatures below zero have slowed the response, dozens of nations, including New Zealand and Ukraine, have pledged to provide assistance.

Rescue workers were working into the night in Sanliurfa, a city in the southeast of Turkey, to try to find survivors among the rubble of a seven-story building that had collapsed.

Omer El Cuneyd, a Syrian student who is 20 years old, stated, “There is a family I know under the rubble.”
My friend continued to answer the phone until eleven or twelve in the morning. However, she no longer responds. She is there below.”

Residents in fear spent the night on the streets, huddled around fires for warmth, despite the freezing temperatures outside.
Too afraid to move, Mustafa Koyuncu packed his wife and five children into their car.

According to the 55-year-old, “We can’t go home.” Everyone is terrified.

Near the epicenter of the quake, between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, where entire city blocks lay in ruins under accumulating snow, there was some of the most extensive destruction.

According to the US Geological Survey, “Apocalypse,” Monday’s first earthquake occurred at 4.17 a.m. (0117 GMT) at a depth of approximately 18 kilometers (11 miles) close to the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is home to approximately two million people.

The disaster management agency reported that Turkey has reported more than 14,000 injuries, while Syria reported at least 3,411 injuries.

According to officials, three major airports have been rendered inoperable, making it more difficult to deliver critical aid.

Major routes into the region have been covered in ice and snow due to a winter blizzard.

Years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russian forces, which resulted in the destruction of homes, hospitals, and clinics, have already decimated a significant portion of the quake-affected region of northern Syria.

The emergency response is already being shaped by the conflict, as Bassam Sabbagh, Syria’s envoy to the United Nations, appears to rule out reopening border crossings that would allow aid to reach rebel-held areas.

In the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, and Tartus, where Russia leases a naval facility, the Syrian health ministry reported damage.

Buildings in Aleppo, Syria’s pre-war commercial hub, frequently collapsed prior to the tragedy due to the deteriorating infrastructure caused by a lack of wartime oversight.

As a precaution, local authorities shut down schools for two weeks and cut off natural gas and power supplies.
Two cities on the UNESCO heritage list—Aleppo in Syria and Diyarbakir in Turkey—were the subject of concerns from the UN cultural agency regarding significant damage.

According to a source at the facility, at least 20 inmates escaped from a jail in northwestern Syria that held mostly members of the Islamic State group following the earthquakes.

Russia, the European Union, and the United States of America all immediately offered support and condolences.

The United States, as promised by President Joe Biden to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will send “any and all” aid to assist in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, also said that Turkey, whose combat drones are helping Kiev fight the Russian invasion, would get “the necessary assistance.”

One of the most active earthquake zones in the world is in Turkey.

In 1939, the country experienced its last 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which resulted in 33,000 fatalities in the eastern Erzincan province.

In 1999, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake killed more than 17,000 people in the Turkish region of Duzce.

Experts have been warning for a long time that Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people with rickety homes, could be devastated by a large earthquake.