A 60-year-old man who survived the killer earthquake of 7.8 Richter which shocked her Turkey and Syria described to Anadolu Agency how he managed to stay cool when he was trapped for 56 hours in the rubble of a building in Antiyaman province.
“I didn’t know how many days we spent under the rubble… I had tobacco with me, I was rolling a cigarette and smoking,” says Ziya Soner Tugtekin, who was rescued with his son.
He and his son may have made it out of the rubble alive, but his wife and daughter were not so lucky. “At the time of the earthquake, my daughter and wife tried to come to me. The ceiling collapsed on them and they were killed on the spot,” he narrates. “My son Denis got trapped and broke his ribs.”
He advises those who find themselves in a similar position to primarily try to keep their cool.
The rescuers pulled him out of the wreckage literally with the cigarette in his mouth. “When they pulled me out of the rubble, I had the cigarette in my mouth. They told me to throw it away, but I didn’t because that’s how I stayed alive.”, he added. He did not part with it even on the stretcher with which he was removed from the flattened district.
At least 40,462 dead and more than 108,000 injured is the provisional toll of the earthquakes in Turkey. Another 5,800 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, a toll that has remained unchanged for days and is almost certain to be much higher.
An excavator operator’s prayer
Moving piles of rubble with his digger, Akin Bozkurt consoles himself by thinking that the discovery of a bow will give relatives the chance to bury their loved one and have a grave where they can mourn.
“If I were to pray to find a dead man? Yes… to deliver his body to the family”says.
Bozkurt, 42, traveled to the southeastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the February 6 earthquakes, from Caesarea (250 kilometers to the north) to help demolish the damaged buildings.
“When a body is pulled out from under tons of rubble, families wait with hope… They want to have the chance of a dignified burial”says Bozkurt.
He recounts an incident when a father trying to warm himself near the ruins of his house approached him and begged him to find what might be left of his daughter. “He told us: Please find at least one part of her body so I know where her grave is,” says the 42-year-old and adds “…it’s really tragic!”.
In the city’s cemetery, thousands of new graves have been opened, underscoring the extent of the destruction.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria since the February 6 earthquakes, and the toll is expected to rise further as operations to find survivors in the rubble draw to a close.
Source: News Beast
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