Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

6.4 earthquake rocks Turkey again

Temblor hits region still recovering from Feb. 6 disaster

- ZEYNEP BILGINSOY AND SUZAN FRASER Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by Omar Alham of The Associated Press.

ISTANBUL — Survivors of the earthquake that jolted Turkey and Syria 15 days ago, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands of others homeless, dealt with more trauma and loss Tuesday after another deadly quake and aftershock­s rocked the region.

The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday evening had its epicenter in the Defne district of Turkey’s Hatay province, which was one of the areas worst affected by the Feb. 6 magnitude 7.8 quake that killed nearly 46,000 people in the two countries.

Turkey’s disaster management authority, AFAD, said the new quake killed six people and injured 294 others, including 18 who were in critical condition. In Syria, a woman and a girl died as a result of panic during the earthquake in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media said.

Monday’s quake was felt in Jordan, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt. A magnitude 5.8 quake followed, along with dozens of aftershock­s. The White Helmets, northwest Syria’s civil defense organizati­on, said about 190 people suffered injuries in rebel-held areas and that several flimsy buildings collapsed but there were no reports of anyone trapped under the debris.

In Turkey, officials warned residents not to go into the remains of their homes, but people have done so to retrieve what they can. Three of the people killed Monday were inside a damaged four-story building when the new quake hit.

Aftershock­s and the instabilit­y of the structure complicate­d the rescue effort, and it took several hours for search crews to find the bodies, Turkish news agency DHA said.

Dr. Tahsin Cinar, an anesthesio­logist using vacation time to help provide medical care in Hatay as a representa­tive of the Turkish Medical Associatio­n, said earthquake survivors need serious help with their mental health.

Cinar and other volunteers initially provided emergency care for people with physical injuries. Now, they are seeing more signs of psychologi­cal trauma, depression and the stress that comes with a lack of safe housing, winter weather and a pause in education.

“There is nearly nothing to create social well-being,” he said.

The U.N.’s World Food Program said Monday’s quake frightened employees who were distributi­ng food to hundreds of thousands of people in northwest Syria and Turkey. The employees are sleeping in their cars in freezing temperatur­es while still trying to do their jobs, the program said.

Some 13.5 million people live in Turkey’s 11 quake-hit provinces, where authoritie­s said more than 139,000 buildings were either destroyed or so severely damaged that they need to be torn down.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 865,000 people were living in tents as of Tuesday. Some 270 tent cities have been set up in the affected provinces, and winter weather added to the suffering of displaced citizens.

Umit Ozalp, who has lived for 40 years in Antakya, a historic city that’s now devastated, was preparing to leave, joining others carrying just a few small bags at a bus station.

Kenan Caglar, a bus company employee, said the company was transporti­ng at least 2,000 passengers a day, most bound for Istanbul or the Mediterran­ean cities of Antalya and Mersin.

The majority of deaths in the Feb. 6 quake, which was followed by a magnitude 7.5 temblor nine hours later, were in Turkey, where at least 42,310 people died, according to the disaster management agency.

Turkey’s defense minister said about 20,000 Syrians living in Turkey had returned to Syria after the quakes.

“They are returning to their lands because they lost their homes and their relatives,” Hulusi Akar said Tuesday from Hatay.

 ?? (AP/Unal Cam) ?? A man walks past destroyed buildings Tuesday in Antakya, southeaste­rn Turkey. More photos at arkansason­line.com/222quake/.
(AP/Unal Cam) A man walks past destroyed buildings Tuesday in Antakya, southeaste­rn Turkey. More photos at arkansason­line.com/222quake/.

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