NEW QUAKE TERROR
Two more tremors slam Turkey, Syria
Two weeks after twin earthquakes devastated Turkey and northern Syria, leaving more than 46,000 people dead and millions homeless, the region was hit by two more tremors late Monday.
First, a powerful 6.4-magnitude quake struck Hatay province in southern Turkey near the Syrian border, followed several minutes later by a magnitude-5.8 quake centered in the town of Samandag, said AFAD, Turkey’s disaster management agency.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Monday three people were killed and 213 injured.
The White Helmets, northwest Syria’s civil-defense organization, reported more than 130 injuries.
The first quake’s tremors were centered around the town of Defne, one of the worst-hit areas from the earlier quakes, AFAD, said.
Shocks were also felt in Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt.
Antakya, Turkey, resident Muna Al Omar said she was in a tent in a park when the first new quake struck.
Like many in the Hatay capital, Omar has already been displaced and is living in a temporary housing shelter.
“I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,” she said through tears while holding her 7-year-old son in her arms. “Is there going to be another aftershock?”
Afraid to go home
Panicked people filled the streets after feeling shocks as far north as Diyarbakır and Adana provinces.
In the city of Adana, eyewitness Alejandro Malaver said people fled their homes, carrying blankets into their cars, and are so scared that “no one wants to get back into their houses.”
The Syrian American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria, said it had treated several patients, including a 7-year-old boy, who suffered heart attacks brought on by fear from the new quakes.
Monday’s major tremor struck at a depth of 6.2 miles, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said. The aftershock was measured at a depth of 1.2 miles.
AFAD urged people to stay away from the Mediterranean coast, as the sea level could rise up to 20 inches.
NTV television reported that the quake caused some alreadydamaged buildings to collapse.
Police patrolled the streets in Hatay while ambulances and rescue teams arrived to check on residents.
Smaller tremors have been felt throughout the region over the last two weeks, but Monday’s was the largest since Feb. 6.
“It was very strong. It jolted us out of our places,” said Burhan Abdelrahman, who had left his tent in a camp in Atakya city center at the time of the earthquake.
“I called relatives in Syria, Adana, Mersin, Izmir, everywhere, to check on them.”
Some survived 12 days
Miraculous rescues have been made across Turkey and Syria over the past two weeks.
On Friday, 12 days after the first quakes, two parents and their 12year-old son were pulled from rubble alive, but the son later died.
Two people were pulled out alive from ruins in Turkey on Thursday, 11 days after the quake decimated the region — including a mother-of-two whose family had lost hope and prepared her grave.
“We had prepared her grave and we asked the rescue workers to stop digging as we feared they would damage the remaining corpses under the rubble,” the woman’s brother-in-law said.
“Moments later, her voice was heard from under the ruins of the building.”
Two brothers were also among at least nine other people pulled out of quake rubble in Turkey last Tuesday, some 200 hours after the massive tremors rocked the region.
One of the siblings survived by drinking protein powder, while another survivor said he was playing video games when his building collapsed.
Eight days after the cataclysmic earthquake struck, an unconscious 5-year-old girl was pulled out from beneath the rubble in Syria. Chilling photos showed the child being carted away on an orange gurney.
However, rescue missions have dwindled drastically in recent days, and shifted toward recovery missions.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken toured damage in some of Turkey’s hardest-hit areas with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and pledged an additional $100 million in aid.