Two young girls who are sisters felt like they were losing hope before they were rescued from the rubble after four days by deadly earthquake in Turkey. “I heard the sound of the building collapsing, floor by floor, like ‘boom,’ boom,” says Zeynep Sivi, who was trapped in a seven-story apartment building with her sister Elif.
Speaking to Sky News, the sisters who spent more than four days trapped in the rubble of their collapsed apartment, say the entire block “leaned” in one direction after the quake. At the same time, plastic tents have been set up in parks and squares and the authorities have started to restore electricity and water. While the survivors will have to deal with the effects of the massive disaster for months or even years, starting from scratch, such stories can only give courage and courage. Each of the stories from a small number of survivors hides a story of miracle, the publication notes.
One of these miracles is that of siblings Zeynep and Elife Civi, who carried them from the ruins of their seven-story apartment building on a stretcher after the building collapsed where they resided, in the early hours of Monday, February 6. Zeynep, 22, was crying and shaking in her polka dot pyjamas. “Yes, I was crying because I was so happy”, he said. “I was shivering because it was very cold. It was so cold I couldn’t feel my legs” completed. Sky News met the girls at Kahramanmaras University Hospital, where they are now recovering from their drama.
Law student Elife, 20, said she would not have survived without her sister, Zeynep. “I was lucky to have my big sister with me, because if I was alone it would have been a lot harder,” she said. “We were under the bed. We survived together. It was cold and we were afraid,” he added. I asked my sister what happened when the vibrations started. “We thought we’d move a little bit and it would stop, but that didn’t happen,” he said. “The building slid — I felt it slide like that,” he said, showing how the entire building start to moving in one direction. “The whole room slipped”. Zeynep made a critical decision when she realized the block was about to explode. “I was about to go to my mother’s room,” she said, but in the end, thankfully, she didn’t. “I stopped at that moment and waited. I heard the sound of the building to falling down, floor by floor, like “boom”, “boom”. At that moment, I put Elife’s head (down) off the bed and then I went in too. That is how it was done”.
The Civi sisters were trapped under Zeynep’s bed with no possible means of escape. “We were close to each other”, Zeynep said, “but we had enough room to turn left or right and the height was like that,” she explained, putting her hand just above her head. “I could sit up when my legs went numb and I turned over to the other side.”
It was wet and cold—the temperature dropped below freezing at night—and they had nothing to eat or drink. Did their situation seem hopeless, the reporter asked. “Yes,” answered Elaife. “I thought if they didn’t save us on the last day, that would be it. I couldn’t go on without water. I couldn’t sleep because I was very thirsty. I couldn’t move. We didn’t scream. We had to scream when we heard a sound (outside), but I couldn’t scream anymore. I couldn’t scream anymore…”
Many of their neighbors on the block and in nearby buildings lost their lives. We saw local people trying to retrieve the bodies of the residents that were wedged between the cracks of the buildings. Looking for some dignity, volunteers held blankets to shield the victims from public view. The whereabouts of thousands of people in Kahramanmaras is currently unknown – a figure that includes mother and father of Zeynep and Eilfe, which are ignored.
The sisters worry about their parents. Zeynep said: “I was calling my mother – are you okay? I couldn’t hear anything. It was very bad.” The sisters were not alone. They had company under the ruins. There was a man with a baby in the apartment directly below them, and together they tried to find a way to hear them. On the morning of the fourth day, they heard a member of an Israeli-Turkish rescue team calling to them. “I had a box of cream in my hand and so I started hitting with the box,” Elife said. “The man below us was also shouting – we were in a relationship at the time. “I thought that the rescue team he had come to save the man and the child, but they came to us. They heard our voices and asked my name. I said “Elife” and told them my sister’s name. It was an incredible moment. at that moment I said: “we are saved”.
At that stage, Zeynep had already given up hope of us meeting, she told SKY News. “We heard some machinery, but that was on the first and second day. I said to Elife: “They have forgotten us, why didn’t they come, why didn’t anyone come to save us?» the girl said to the camera.
Zeynep continued: “The last day I had lost hope.” I said to Elife, “We’re going to die, you know that?” Finally we heard a low sound and then they came up to us and said “we hear you” and we did our best to make a sound. Finally they took us out.” The sisters suffered cuts, bruises and it was a lot dehydrated. Both still feel desperately tired, but are glad to be alive.
How will this experience change your life, the reporter asked Elife. “I think everything happens in a split second,” he said. “We may be alive now, but tomorrow we may be gone. So I will live life to the fullest».
Their story of resilience shines like a light in this devastated city. Their fellow citizens – and the survivors – will need similar courage to get through the coming months, perhaps years.
Source: News Beast
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