Editor’s note:In the summer and fall of 2014, Paul Salopek hiked 800 miles across Anatolia, Turkey, documenting the beautiful region’s ancient roots and its peoples’ warmth, hospitality—and struggles with war and refugee crises. Walking partner Deniz Kilic trekked more than 300 miles of that route. He now sends us a report from the earthquakes that leveled parts of Turkey and Syria this week.
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When two massive earthquakes struck Turkey on Monday, I was traveling with friends in a distant city called Ardahan near the Caucasus mountains in the northeast of the country. We immediately left that remote area by four-wheel-drive to render help.
The trip wasn’t easy. We drove about 500 miles to the hardest-hit regions, centered around the province of Kahramanmaras, in the southeast. It took us 12 hours. Police at checkpoints only admitted emergency vehicles. But they let me and my friends through because we are trained volunteers for an emergency rescue team in Bodrum, my hometown on the Aegean Sea. By the time we got to the actual disaster zone, it was already 11 p.m.
First, we went to the provincial governor’s building in Adiyaman, one of the cities ravaged by the quakes. Seeing us in our yellow Disaster and Emergency Management Agency vests, the local officials immediately gave us our first assignment: to join other crews in rescuing people trapped inside two collapsed buildings.
Friends on social media also began sending tips about where aid was needed most.
The earthquakes smashed Turkey on one of the coldest days of the year. One early request came in to rescue three families stranded in cars in heavy snows. We saved them from freezing. We gave them gasoline and pulled them out of the drifts.
Then it was a new mission at one of the local hotels. It was reduced to rubble. We helped gently pull about 80 people out of this massive wreck. We literally disentangled living survivors from beneath huge piles of concrete and bricks.
Rescue workers toiling alongside Kilic use a grinder to cut through a collapsed building in Adiyaman in an effort to free residents trapped below.
Deniz Kilic
On the third day after the catastrophe, we got some good news: There were people still alive in the ruins. We tried to save them. But with each passing day of freezing temperatures, hope has grown thinner.
These two quakes, the biggest registering 7.8 on the Richter scale, may be among the most devasting in Turkey’s history. And the country was unfortunately not ready.
Thousands of buildings have collapsed. There are only about 200 organized rescue teams in all of Turkey. Even if we deploy 100 percent of these resources, it won’t be enough to save all the victims.
The main problem, in my opinion, is not listening to the scientists who for years have warned authorities not to build on Turkey’s active earthquake fault lines. Or, if they must build something, then only allow earthquake-resistant structures. In recent days, I saw only one such building that had been designed correctly and stood undamaged. It didn’t even have a scratch. (See photo.) But far more buildings, roads, and airports were constructed without safeguards and are now destroyed and unusable. Viaducts are damaged. Today, this substandard infrastructure actually forms a deadly barrier that prevents people from being rescued. Of course, the unbelievably terrible weather conditions don’t help.
Residents displaced by the earthquakes’ destruction in Adiyaman straggle past one of the few buildings in the city designed to resist temblors.
Deniz Kilic
Thousands of shipments of relief materials are arriving now in Turkey from all around the world. The most important task ahead is to be organized in distributing these lifesaving goods. Many shattered cities will desperately need help: Kilis, Diyarbakır, Adana, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Malatya, and Hatay.
I hope everybody will take a serious lesson from this catastrophe. We must face the reality that a big earthquake hitting Istanbul is likely coming. All the country must prepare. We must be ready from now on.
Here are a few of the organizations working in the disaster zone:
Turkish Red Crescent (food, shelter, medical).
Doctors Without Borders (medical personnel, emergency medical kits).
Syrian-American Medical Society (helping overwhelmed hospitals with trauma care).
A veteran traveler, motorcycle rider, and mountaineer, Deniz Kilic owns a travel agency called Ibex Adventure Club, in the city of Bodrum. He has volunteered for disaster relief missions in earthquake zones before, including the Erzincan quake in Turkey in 1992.