Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Turkey earthquake


The effort to save any remaining earthquake victims continues around the clock in the eastern province of Van in Turkey after an earthquake reduced many of its buildings to rubble on Sunday, Oct. 23. A two-week old baby girl, her mother and grandmother were rescued in Ercis on Tuesday, but most teams are finding only bodies among the ruins. The 7.2 magnitude quake has reportedly killed at least 450 people as of Tuesday night and damaged more than 2,000 structures. Survivors live on the streets and in tents provided by the government. -- Lloyd Young
(28 photos total)

About 46 hours after an earthquake decimated the Turkish town of Ercis, rescue workers cradle 14-day old Azra Karaduma after pulling her from a collapsed apartment building. “Given the work conditions and hardships of rescue teams, the best prize is to bring people back to life,”
Ercan Toprak, leader of the rescue team that saved the girl, told NTV. “We feel the joy of connecting her back to life and hope her mother and grandmother will also be saved very shortly.” Her mother and grandmother had taken shelter with the baby behind a couch in their damaged apartment. After hearing their cries for help, rescuers drilled a hole into their wall. (Reuters)



Two men comfort each other near a collapsed building in Ercis, near the eastern Turkish city of Van. Ercis sustained some of the worst damage from the earthquake, and 3,000 rescue workers have converged on the site, with many digging with only their hands.(Baz Ratner/Reuters)


A rescuer inspects a hole in the debris to search for possible survivors trapped under a collapsed building where seven people are believed to be buried in Ercis on Oct. 25. The 7.2 magnitude quake in eastern Turkey Sunday killed at least 450 people and injured more than 1,300 (Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press)


An earthquake survivor collects his belongings in a collapsed building on Oct. 25 in Ercis. With thousands of homeless survivors facing near-freezing temperatures, Turkey said it would accept international aid offers, even from Israel, with which it has had strained relations. (Osman Orsal/Reuters)


A gravedigger works in Ercis on Oct. 25. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)


Mourners attend a funeral of an earthquake victim in Ercis on Oct. 25. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)


Funerals in Ercis increase as workers dug deeper into collapsed buildings in a battle against time to find survivors.(Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)


As temperatures fall, men sit around a fire amid the rubble of collapsed buildings on Oct. 25 in Ercis. Tens of thousands of people have had to spend their nights under canvas, in cars or huddled round small fires in towns rattled by aftershocks. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)


A Turkish soldier guards a rescue operation on Oct. 25 amid collapsed buildings in Ercis. Pockets of jubilation over successful rescues have been tempered by many more discoveries of bodies. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)


Passing a resting rescue worker, a man carries a half dozen loaves of bread on Oct. 24 in Ercis. Shortages of food and shelter have gripped the region, with desperate survivors forcing aid trucks to pull over before they even reach their destinations. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)


People stay amid the rubble of a collapsed building on Oct. 25 in Ercis. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)


Residents grab tents from a Turkish Red Crescent truck on Oct. 24 in Ercis. Much of the town still lacked running water or power two days after the earthquake and aid workers said they could only provide shelter for about half of the thousands of homeless people. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)


A refugee camp has been set up in Ercis, where casualties have been concentrated so far. Officials are still checking outlying areas. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)


Relatives of quake victims watch as workers try to rescue survivors from a collapsed building in Ercis on Oct. 25, two days after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake reduced scores of buildings to rubble. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)


Survivors pick through the rubble of their collapsed apartment on Oct. 25 in Ercis. (Osman Orsal/Reuters)


Relatives of quake victims gather as rescue workers take part in an operation to pull people from a collapsed building in Ercis on Oct. 25. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)


A rescue worker enters the crevice created by a collapsed building on Oct. 25 in Ercis. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)


A boy looks through a hole on a collapsed building on Oct. 25 in Ercis. Scores of people remain missing in the town. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)


A man makes a bed of concrete blocks in Ercis on Oct. 24. Distraught families mourned outside a mosque or sought to identify loved ones among rows of bodies in the town. (Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press)


More than 2,200 buildings were damaged in the town of Ercis and the surrounding Van province, according to the emergency unit of the prime minister's office. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)


Rescue teams, working with bare hands and heavy machinery, try to find survivors in the rubble in Ercis on Oct. 24, the day following the earthquake. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)


Emergency service workers carry an earthquake survivor after pulling him from the rubble on Oct. 24 in Ercis in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. (Osman Orsal/Reuters)


A man stands amid the remains of a building in Van in eastern Turkey on Oct. 24. Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said that at least 100 people had died in both the city of Van and the town of Ercis. (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)


Turkish men and rescue workers try to find survivors in a collapsed building in Ercis on the evening of the earthquake, Oct. 23. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)


Yunus, a 13-year-old with a hand of a victim on his shoulder, waits to be rescued from under a flattened building on Oct. 24 in Ercis. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)


Rescuers pull survivors from the rubble hours after an earthquake hit a village near the city of Van on Oct. 23. (Ali Ihsan Ozturk/Reuters)


Villagers and rescue workers try to save people trapped under debris on Oct. 23 in Tabanli, near the eastern Turkish city of Van. (Abdurrahman Antakyali/Reuters)


A member of a search and rescue team combs through the darkness of a collapsed building for survivors in Ercis on Oct. 25. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)

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