Rescue workers warm themselves by a fire near debris in the southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras in the evening of Feb. 7, 2023. (Xinhua/Shadati)
KAHRAMANMARAS, Türkiye, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Volunteers began flocking to southern Türkiye right after a series of strong earthquakes devastated the region and left more than 8,500 dead as of Wednesday and many more homeless.
Photographs show terminals jam-packed with people eager to assist, and roads to the areas were lined with cars and trucks as far as the eye could see, which are ready to deliver crucial supplies or lend a helping hand.
A survivor is evacuated from the rubble of a destroyed building in quake-hit Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, on Feb. 7, 2023. Türkiye's disaster management agency updated Wednesday the death toll from the earthquake to 7,108, with around 40,000 injured. (Xinhua/Shadati)
One such volunteer is Kerem Okyay, a businessperson from the central city of Sivas, who rushed to the town of Elbistan nearly 200 kilometers away.
Elbistan, in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, was the epicenter of Monday's second earthquake, a 7.6-magnitude tremor, which came just hours after a 7.7-magnitude one in the nearby town of Pazarcik. The twin quakes have left 8,574 people dead and 49,133 others injured as of Wednesday morning, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"We formed a team with some friends as soon as we heard the news of the earthquake and came here as volunteers," Okyay shared his story with Xinhua. "It was good that we came. When we arrived, the area was rubble everywhere."
Their group was able to save two people from the rubble soon after they arrived. "We were focusing on areas where we could hear people," he explained.
A rescuer searches for survivors among the rubble of a destroyed building in quake-hit Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, on Feb. 7, 2023. Türkiye's disaster management agency updated Wednesday the death toll from the earthquake to 7,108, with around 40,000 injured. (Xinhua/Shadati)
Removing people from under rubble is not easy. It took him ten hours of hard work to remove just three people on the second day, told Okyay.
"Two were deceased, and one was rescued by us. We loaded him onto an ambulance and sent him off," he said.
The survivor was a 20-year-old man named Cihan while the other two were his older brother Hamza and their mother.
Okyay said that there are five more people still in the apartment rubble, and they'd already established contact with one of the men named Ferdi, and his team was about to get back to work. It was 10 p.m. local time.
Okyay also requested that any other volunteers who wish to come to bring construction equipment. "Right now, we need excavators and generators," he said, "without them, we can't remove survivors caught between columns."
A woman waits for news of her relative in quake-hit Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, Türkiye, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Xinhua/Shadati)
Zeki Celik, a teacher from the northern province of Samsun, came to Elbistan as part of a 17-person volunteer team under the coordination of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). He and his teammates scour the rubble listening for cries for help to notify and assist trained personnel with specialized equipment.
"We saved a 62-year-old man and extracted a 12-year-old child on Tuesday, both of whom were sent to the hospital," he told Xinhua on Wednesday.
They continued their search work heading to a nearby building to provide assistance after the short conversation. ■
