Rescue Workers in Turkey’s Quake-Hit Hatay Province Race Against Time

With nighttime temperatures below freezing, rescue workers stand near an open fire in Hatay’s Iskenderun province on Feb. 8, 2023. (Ercan Koc for The Epoch Times)

ADANA, Turkey—The highway from Turkey’s southern Adana Province to the neighboring province of Hatay is snarled by traffic. There are long lines of trucks bearing critical aid for survivors, bulldozers and excavation equipment, and busloads of volunteer rescue workers.

On Feb. 6, Adana and Hatay—and eight other provinces of southern Turkey—were hit with back-to-back earthquakes that have left thousands dead and leveled entire neighborhoods.

A lone building that withstood the twin earthquakes in Hatay’s Iskenderun district on Feb. 8, 2023. (Ercan Koc for The Epoch Times)

The casualty toll currently stands at more than 20,000 dead and more than 66,000 injured. Both numbers, especially the first, are expected to rise as more bodies are pulled from the rubble.

Thousands of survivors have already been saved thanks to the efforts of volunteer rescue workers, who continue to work around the clock.

On Feb. 9, a 1-year-old baby was pulled from the rubble near the quake’s epicenter in Kahramanmaras Province.

But with nighttime temperatures falling below freezing, rescue workers in affected areas have found themselves in a race against time.

One of those is Sahin Sahinguler, a 33-year-old machine engineer who rushed to Hatay’s Iskenderun district shortly after the first quake struck. He’s part of a 400-strong team of volunteers from the Akkuyu nuclear-energy facility in Turkey’s Mersin Province.

“We’ve extricated seven people from this particular site,” Sahinguler told The Epoch Times, pointing to a mountain of rubble that until recently was a multistory building.

“Four of them were pulled out alive. The other three weren’t so lucky.

“From what we can tell, four or five more people are still buried in there. We think we’ve located two of them, but it will take several more hours of digging.”

Local residents look on as rescue efforts continue into the night in Hatay’s Iskenderun district on Feb. 8, 2023. (Ercan Koc for The Epoch Times)

The twin quakes, of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes, were felt as far away as Cyprus, Lebanon, and Egypt. But the only other country to suffer comparable damage was Syria, which shares a 565-mile border with southern Turkey.

According to Syrian sources, more than 3,100 people have been killed—and some 5,000 injured—in northern Syria’s Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Raqqa provinces.

Turkey’s Hatay shares longstanding cultural and linguistic links with Syria. In fact, Hatay was a province of Syria until 1939, when it joined the nascent Turkish Republic following a referendum.

A four-story building in Hatay’s Iskenderun district stands on verge of collapse on Feb. 8, 2023. (Ercan Koc for The Epoch Times

Of Turkey’s 10 quake-hit provinces, Hatay is among the most affected.

As one approaches Hatay’s coastal Iskenderun district, known for its steelworks and petrochemical plants, the breadth of the destruction is soon apparent. Large cracks appear in the highway, while smoke can be seen billowing from a damaged industrial facility.

On the streets of the city, ambulances fly past—green lights flashing and sirens wailing—with alarming regularity. Mountains of rubble, the remains of tall buildings, can be seen everywhere.

Most are surrounded by dazed former residents warming themselves next to open fires, awaiting news of missing loved ones. Even those buildings that survived the quakes show clear signs of damage, while many appear on the verge of collapse.

Electricity in quake-hit Iskenderun is spotty at best. Once the sun goes down, the city is plunged into darkness, forcing rescue teams to rely solely on portable generators. Traffic lights flicker erratically; most have ceased functioning altogether.

At one point, rescue workers emerge from the darkness, commanding the drivers of passing vehicles to stop.

“Turn off your engines and keep quiet,” one of them shouts. “We think we heard voices under the rubble.”

As per his instructions, traffic immediately comes to a halt. Motorists sit in bleak silence for several minutes until they are permitted to restart their engines.

Survivors Live in Fear of Aftershocks

Under normal circumstances, Hatay attracts frequent tourists, both foreign and domestic, due to its rich historic and cultural heritage. Hatay’s regional capital, Antakya, was a famous metropolis in ancient times—in the Bible, it’s referred to as Antioch.

But now, finding accommodation of any kind is impossible. Every spare bed in the city has been allocated to those rendered homeless, or whose houses and buildings are at risk of collapse.

An industrial excavator sifts through the rubble in Hatay’s quake-hit Iskenderun district on Feb. 8, 2023. (Ercan Koc for The Epoch Times)

“We’re still feeling intermittent aftershocks,” Mehmet Akdogan, a 35-year-old Iskenderun resident, told The Epoch Times.

“After the initial two quakes, I sent my wife and three children to another city, while I stayed behind to help rescue efforts.”

The building he lives in sustained partial damage, so Akdogan has slept in his car each night since the quake, fearful of renewed seismic activity.

According to Turkey’s disaster management authority, more than 6,400 buildings have collapsed as a result of the two main earthquakes and more than 430 aftershocks.

On Feb. 9, the southern provinces of Gaziantep and Elazig were both shaken—again—by 4.4 magnitude tremors.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the series of earthquakes as one of the “biggest natural disasters” to hit the country within the past century. On Feb. 7, the government declared a three-month state of emergency in all 10 affected provinces.

In 1939, more than 32,000 people were killed when a massive earthquake struck Turkey’s central Erzincan Province.

Six decades later, Turkey’s northwestern Izmit Province was hit by a 7.6 magnitude quake that left more than 17,000 people dead.