“We don’t know when we will be able to return,” said Bilal Jawir as he finished loading a van with his family’s belongings and prepared to leave the Turkish city of Antakya, hit by the February 6 earthquake.

During the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria early Monday morning and claimed more than 44,000 lives, Jawir, his wife and their two daughters took refuge under some orange trees that line their property.

They came out unscathed but they have seen some of their neighbors fall from their balconies.

“We have no hope. We have no work, we have no life. How could we continue to live here?” Jawir asks. “My heart breaks. It’s hard,” he adds.

While their home isn’t badly damaged at first glance, the family doesn’t want to stay for fear that the structure has been weakened.

“Our return will depend on the presence of (public) services” in Antakya, he explains.

In addition to all those whose homes have collapsed, they are now facing millions across the region to the dilemma of whether to risk returning to their homeswait for the structure to be examined or move to another location.

“It’s hard to pack up and leave. I have many memories here,” says Jawir. “My daughters were born here, we got married here,” he adds.

The family found refuge in their uncle’s house in Andana, a town three hours away by car, which suffered minor damage.

Some residents of Jawir, in the Kislasaray district of Antakya, are also packing up and preparing to leave.

Turkey decided on Sunday terminate search effortsexcept for the two most affected provinces, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) announced.

“In many of our provinces, search and rescue has been completed. Work continues in Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces,” Yunus Sezer, director of the agency, told reporters in Ankara.

Uncertainty

Adnan and his daughter Dilay load bags of clothes into a van.

“We don’t know what will become of our house, if they destroy it, we don’t know what will happen,” says Adnan, who doesn’t want to give his last name.

Like the Jawir, they don’t want to risk going home.

In the kitchen, Dilay’s mother becomes desperate when she sees the broken jars scattered on the floor. “I can’t take anything from here,” she says.

The family will move to an apartment in Mersin, 270 kilometers from Antakya on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

Some do not hesitate to take advantage of the situation.

In the north of the city, a worker at a mobile platform lift raised his prices to $80 an hour to use the device, which is capable of reaching a fifth-story window.

It also bills $50 per loader and $50 for a truck rental.

“We raise prices because of the danger,” the man told AFP, who claims he clears six or seven flats every day.

In the historic center of Antakya, 45-year-old Cuneyt Eroglu rummages through the remains of his optician.

“Ms. Hacer, if you’re looking at me, your contact lenses have arrived,” he laughs, as he stuffs the packages recovered from the wreckage into a cardboard box.

“We will clean up and continue to live here,” he says hopefully.

Unlike other parts of the Old Town, his shop street has yet to be cleared of the huge amount of rubble and bits of metal that covered much of the city.

Eroglu, whose family was not injured in the earthquake, took refuge in a tent on the outskirts of Antakya.

“Leaving is easy, staying is important,” he says. “After this, I want to stay on this street for the rest of my life.”

Source: AFP