Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: desolation in Iskenderun, a city devastated by the earthquake

The Mediterranean port of Iskenderun, in the Turkish province of Hatay, it still burns three days after the earthquakewhich devastated southeastern Turkey.

This region, in the extreme south-east of the country, is the hardest hit by the earthquake, despite being 150 kilometers from the epicenter, with an almost total level of destruction of buildings and infrastructures.

Alejandreta, as the city is called in Spanish, it is full of completely destroyed buildingswhile most of the others are leaning on their side with only a leaning part.

Everyone sleeps on the street

No one has slept at home here since Monday. Everyone is in the streets, in open fields, with bonfires, heating because there are temperatures close to zero.

The inhabitants of the city, which until Monday had a quarter of a million inhabitants, However, they resist, in shops, in cars.

There are occasional camps set up by the government with tents to house families.

Others have left or at least tried to, causing huge traffic jams on the streets and highways, which are also in ruins from the earthquake.

Meanwhile, rescue teams continue to search for survivors, day and night, with searchlights and torches.

They are clearing the rubble, looking for the last survivors, all that humanly can do, almost four days after the initial earthquake.

Despite the desolation there is still hopeVahid, a man in his 50s who had a shop in the city, told EFE. A shop, which like so many others in this place, no longer exists.

He says he was at his grocery store when the quake struck: “I woke up and was able to climb out the window into the crystal,” he says.

Just as his building was leaning, he managed to save two people on the top floor who also managed to jump out of windows. They were barely on the street the building collapsed.

Vahid’s family was in another nearby building which did not fall. The man says he has four children and that they are all safe.

He has managed to take them to a field where they have a bonfire and a tent for the little ones, and although their house is still standing, the family does not dare to enter because the surrounding buildings could also collapse.

The hope

Vahid collaborates from the first moment as a volunteer, day and night, looking for people in the rubble.

Says they managed to get six people alive on Monday, two more on Tuesday. but on Wednesday they only recovered bodies.

However, she says there is still hope, since people’s voices can still be heard in the rubble and work is underway to reach them. “It’s still possible. We can still save people,” says Vahid.

In another building in the center they say they no longer hear anything. They continue to work there too, with heavy machinery, but believe they will only find dead bodies. The disappointment is huge.

A young official, who identifies herself as Elif and tells EFE that her house has also partially collapsed, was able to leave because she was on an upper floor while the one below had completely collapsed.

He doesn’t know what they will do now. He has no plans, she says. “We can no longer make plansresigned account.

Local experts say the earthquake had such a devastating effect on this place because it sits on the same fault line that comes from the epicenter to the south.

Because of this, large cities like Gaziantep, which is much closer to the epicenter, have suffered much less because it is not to blame, while Antioquia and Alejandreta have been devastated.

EFE Agency