Turkey quake

[andygates]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15421633

7.2, Eastern Turkey, 50+ dead already. Epicentre near Van. S&R and Red Crescent on the way.

[TacAir]

This site reports at least 85, other sites are calling up to 1000...

Posted site has images. Quite the mess.

[CrackMunk]

This site reported the current death toll is still reported as 279, 1301 injured, and 2202 buildings destroyed.
http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/23 ... rn-turkey/

[Janissary]

Earthquake happened in the city of Van, near the Iran border and it was felt in all the neighbouring countries including Iraq. The magnitude has been declared as 7.2 and in the center of the earthquake, the district of Ercis, it was 9.0. Most of the damage happened in the villages where building structures are not meant to stand such big earthquakes. Many traditional houses have collapsed. Current death toll is near 300 but once all debris have been cleared, it is expected to reach over 900. Many buildings stay intact, especially in the city center but people refuse to enter their houses in fear of secondary earthquakes. This is the main problem of rescue operations. A few hundreds of thousands of people want to stay outside in tents. Temperature is 0 celcius in the evenings and it is expected to snow tomorrow night. Giving shelter to all these people has crippled rescue efforts and it will raise the death count. Especially villages are having difficulty receiving proper aid because some of them are placed in hard to reach rural areas. 25 battalions of military personel has been transfered to the region apart from all the civilian and official rescue instituons.. Foreign help was not necessary in the initial steps of rescue operations but people refusing to return their homes resulted in a lack of manpower. Turkish government called for Azerbajcan and Iran officials to aid. Israeli and Bulgarian teams have also been welcomed to help in the earthquake.

Trivial information, 150 convicts have run away from a correction center after the first earthquake. They all visited their houses and checked on their families. 142 of them returned to the correction center in the second night. 8 of them are still missing. A riot started in another correction center which mostly held Kurdish terrorists. They wanted to leave the prison but were refused. They set their beds on fire. It's still going on at the moment. Same terrorist organisation, PKK, attacked a military supply truck in the earthquake zone. 4 soldiers were wounded with the IED blast. Goods in the supply truck could not be salvaged by the terrorists.

[Krustofski]

Picture of the day:



Video of the rescue: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/week-rescu ... d=14810395

[wee drop o' bush]

Picture of the day:



Video of the rescue: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/week-rescu ... d=14810395

that truly is an amazing picture

[Janissary]

The little baby is Azra Karaduman. She was born 14 days ago and she was a premature baby. She spent 2 days of her life (0.15 of her total life) under piles of cement and steel without any food or water. She was saved under the debris after 47 hours. Her mother and grandmother was also saved with her. Father is still missing and is believed to be under the debris.

One would expect things to get better in time but it's not happening in Van. Prefabric houses hasn't been delivered and even tents are not enough to support all the people. Luckily it didn't snow today and weather is quite nice for the season.

Trivia of the day, Turkish authorities had gently refused help from Japanese people. Japan has a long history of earthquakes and disasters, they are one of the nations who understand our pain the best. It's has been reported that Japanese people were travelling to the Turkish embassy in Japan and leaving envelopes of letters and cash. Once they drop their envelopes, they literally run away from the embassy because Turkish diplomats try to return their gifts. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been collected from the embassy in the last three days. It was a very touching act from the Japanese people. I have written a thank you letter myself. I will deliver it personally to the Japanese embassy in Turkey. Thank you very much for being so nice Japanese people. You're all over Turkish TVs now and we are grateful for your help.

[FlashDaddy]

(Reuters) - Survivors of eastern Turkey's earthquake pleaded for more tents on Thursday, fearing death from cold after a tremor that killed at least 523 and left thousands sleeping in the open.
Some blamed the ruling AK party for a slow response and accused officials of handing aid to supporters, after standing in long queues only to be told there were no tents left. Others said profiteers were hoarding tents and reselling them.

"Everyone is getting sick and wet. We have been waiting in line for four days like this and still nothing. It gets to our turn and they say they have run out," said Fetih Zengin, 38, an estate agent whose house was badly damaged in Ercis, a town of 100,000 that was hardest hit by Sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake.

"We slept under a piece of plastic erected on some wood boards we found. We have 10 children in our family, they are getting sick. Everyone needs a tent, snow is coming. It's a disaster."

Ergun Ozmen, 37, was carrying loaves of bread after queuing for food. "People are taking 10 tents and selling them. It's a disgrace. I slept in the municipal park all night in the rain. My shoes are filled with water. I only registered to get a tent this morning as I have been busy burying the dead," he said.

The death toll rose to 523, with 1,650 injured in the biggest quake in more than a decade in Turkey. The Disaster and Emergency Administration said 185 people had been rescued alive from collapsed buildings since ... See link http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/us-turkey-quake-idUSTRE79M10Z20111027