Turkey earthquake: survivors continue struggling to find shelters

Antakya/ Turkey: After the catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey, which left millions of people homeless, the survivors are struggling to find shelters for rehabilitation, Reuters reported.

Many of them are living in makeshift shelters even after almost three weeks. Some are living in their own damaged houses due to the scarcity of tents or other living set-ups. They are unable to find a place in an official camp.

Around two million survivors are being lodged in tents, container homes and other facilities, but many are left out and are yet to receive a similar set-up to shelter their families.

One of the survivors told Reuters that their houses were heavily damaged and, therefore, they took shelter in a nearby garden. They have not received a single tent, and it’s 19 days after the horrendous disaster fell on the Turkey-Syria border region. The survivor said that though they applied for a tent camp, the authorities informed them that the ones nearby were full.

The said survivor, Alswed, was with 60 Syrians staying next to the road to Reyhanli town. They are staying in 11 shelters made of plastic sheets, blankets, bricks and chunks of concrete from damaged buildings. Around one dozen children are also with them.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in Turkey informed that the death count in the country had reached 44,218, and with the count from Syria, the total reached 50,000.

AFAD informed that more than 335,000 tents had been put up in the disaster-affected zone in Turkey, while container home settlements were placed at 130 locations. Around 5,30,000 people were evacuated from the quake zone, AFAD said.

While Alswed tried official phone numbers and talked to AFAD and other aid groups about their situation, some smaller NGOs reached out to them with canned food, toilet paper toys etc.