Survivors tell of their quake ordeal in Turkey

Survivors of Turkey’s devastating earthquake told Arab News on Saturday of their ordeal.

“I felt the building shaking, then the house began moving toward the house next door. It was as if the ground was moving back and forth under our feet. We could barely stand,” said Canan Gullu, head of the Women Associations of Turkey. Gullu had been spending the weekend at her summer house in the coastal town of Seferihisar, and was having coffee with friends on her balcony when the 7.0 magnitude quake struck the western province of Izmir on Friday. It was followed by a mini-tsunami that hit the district where she was living. “I am now focusing on providing essential goods for the women living on the streets or whose buildings collapsed. It is the other face of poverty in Turkey,” Gullu said. As the search for survivors con

tinued, a mother and her three children were rescued after 18 hours trapped under the debris of their building. Others stayed in tents provided by the municipality for fear of aftershocks. Some hotel and restaurant owners offered free rooms and free dinners to survivors.

The quake killed more than 30 people in Turkey and neighboring Greek islands, and the figure was expected to rise. Almost 900 people were injured, with 243 treated in hospital and eight in intensive care.

Despite their current diplomatic standoff, Turkish and Greek officials exchanged solidarity messages.“Whatever our differences, these are times when our people need to stand together,” Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.