Adem Serin observes from a bridge seven excavators that clear what used to be his house and watches the passing of the trucks that take turns to remove the rubble left by the earthquake a month ago.
“For me, it’s like it was yesterday. I still hear the calls for help (…) This pain will never go away,” said the thirty-year-old, who feels haunted by the tragedy that surprised him and his pregnant wife. five months on the eleventh floor of his building.
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On February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake devastated southern Turkey and a part of Syria.
A month later, his town, Kahramanmaras, which is two hours from the quake’s epicenter, is trying to clear the rubble.
More than 40 kilometers from the town you can see a cloud of dust left by these tasks.
Every day, 250 tons of rubble are removed and taken to a warehouse on the outskirts. There are crooked irons, burst mattresses, curtains and cement plates.
“We have not found bodies (…) but yesterday, we smelled a strong smell,” said Eren Genç, a 26-year-old forest ranger.
More than 11 thousand aftershocks
According to the authorities, 46,000 people died in Turkey, plus 6,000 fatalities on the Syrian side.
The jobs attract the curious, but also the residents of the property who are looking for their belongings. A tailor hopes to find his sewing machine, a family would like to find his bed.
The catastrophe left hundreds of thousands of families homeless and affects the lives of some 14 million people.
The Veli Akgoz building still stands but is badly damaged. Despite the danger and the nearly 11,000 aftershocks, the man dared to go down the stairs with his son to his apartment on the seventh floor to recover some appliances, tools and a door.
“We exposed ourselves to great risks,” acknowledged the 54-year-old trader whose family now lives in a cramped house.
When the survivors have to start life in a camp anew, anything, a mattress or a blanket from life before, makes all the difference.
According to the government, there are two million people living in tents or in containers set up in stadiums or parks. But this offer is far from covering the needs.
Solmaz Tugacar decided to return to their home, which was badly damaged.
We are afraid, but we have no choice
Survivor
“Heroic”
In the upper part of the city, eleven tents were erected in the mayor’s gardens.
Ibrahim Yayla shows one of the tents. Apart from some rugs from a neighboring mosque there is nothing else to house his wife, his five-year-old son and their two-month-old baby.
The bathrooms that are above the town hall offer the only access to water in the entire neighborhood. But after an aftershock that occurred on Saturday, one of the children refuses to enter.
“He is traumatized,” said Ibrahim, who hopes the minor can see a psychologist.
“We all need it,” said this electrician who still remembers his neighbors screaming for help as he tried to get his mother out.
“But here we are brave,” said smiling Ibrahim, who remembers that the prefix “Kahraman” added to the name Maras means “heroic.”
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“We want to be an example,” he said.
