Updated 3:30 p.m. Wednesday
Rescue teams near the Turkish and Syrian border are continuing to search for people trapped under rubble after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the region early Monday. At least 12,000 people had been confirmed dead as of Wednesday and many are still missing.
Bay Area residents and community groups are now rallying to help relief efforts from afar.
“This is an emergency within an emergency. In Syria, people were already suffering as it is with a severely weakened infrastructure, depleted health care system, shortage of resources like water, electricity, you name it,” said Maya Fallaha, a Syrian American who lives in the Bay Area. “Now with the earthquake, it’s an additional blow for thousands of civilians.”
Skip to:
Fallaha received a text while she was at the gym from her father, who was visiting the south of Turkey, about the earthquake while he was being evacuated.
“He texted me saying ‘big earthquake, very strong,’” Fallaha told KQED. “Immediately I’m concerned about my aunt who lives in the North of Syria and extended family and relatives. My initial reaction was just shock and trying to account for all my friends and family living in that area.”
Buildings collapsed in both countries, scattering streets with heavy piles of concrete and debris.
The death toll could rise to over 20,000, according to Catherine Smallwood, the World Health Organization’s senior emergency officer for Europe.
Berkeley Turkish School founder Başak Altan felt a mix of frustration and sadness when she heard about the catastrophic quake, which comes amid an extreme winter and freezing temperatures for the affected region.
“All of my family is in Turkey. Everyone knows someone who has been impacted, who is missing or died, friends or family they haven’t heard from. There are uncounted people in Turkey, refugees and immigrants,” she said.
Altan lives in Berkeley, and remembers waking up nearly 23 years ago when another major earthquake flattened buildings near Istanbul and killed an estimated 18,000 people.
“It was devastating to wake up to this again. I don’t think a lot has changed in the last two decades in Turkey in terms of making the necessary changes for safety in an earthquake. We have an economy that is dependent on turning and popping out tall buildings, big dense units in earthquake-prone zones, despite the calls from earthquake scientists, geological experts. No one is listening,” said Altan. “People can’t be taken to the hospital because the hospital is in shambles. When you have this much devastation on top of devastation, it’s impossible to fathom how you help these poor souls that are there.”