Survivors still found; death toll tops 28,000

EARTHQUAKE AFTERMATH

More than a dozen rescued on Saturday

Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance late Saturday after they pulled him out of the rubble five days after Monday’s earthquake in Antakya, southern Turkey, as rescuers continued to pull unlikely survivors from the ruins. CAN OZER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Justin Spike, Abdelrahman Shaheen and Zeynep Bilginsoy

The Associated Press

LATAKIA, Syria >> Ibrahim Zakaria lost track of time drifting into and out of consciousness while trapped for nearly five days in the rubble of his home following the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria Monday.

The 23-year-old cellphone shop worker from the Syrian town of Jableh survived on dirty drips of water and eventually lost hope that he’d be saved.

“I said I am dead and it will be impossible for me to live again,” Zakaria, who was rescued Friday night, said on Saturday from his bed at a hospital in the coastal city of Latakia where his 60-year-old mother, Duha Nurallah, also was recovering.

Five days after two powerful earthquakes hours apart caused thousands of buildings to collapse, killing more than 28,000 people and leaving millions homeless, rescuers were still pulling unlikely survivors from the ruins. Although each rescue elicited hugs and shouts of “Allahu akbar!” — “God is great!” — from the weary men and women working tirelessly in the freezing temperatures to save lives, they were the exception in a region blanketed by grief, desperation and mounting frustration.

More than a dozen survivors were rescued Saturday, including a 7-month-old boy in Antakya and a family in Kahramanmaras, the Turkish city closest to the epicenter of Monday’s quake. Crews there helped 12-year-old Nehir Naz Narli to safety before going back for her parents.

In Gaziantep province, which borders Syria, a family of five was rescued from a demolished building in the city of Nurdagi and a man and his 3-year-old daughter were pulled from debris in the town of Islahiye, television network HaberTurk reported. A 7-year-old girl also was rescued in Hatay province.

In Elbistan, a district in Kahramanmaras province, 20-year-old Melisa Ulku and another person were saved from the rubble 132 hours after the quake struck. Before she was brought to safety, police asked onlookers not to cheer or clap so as not to interfere with nearby rescue efforts.

Turkish TV station NTV reported that a 44-year-old man in Iskenderun, in Hatay province, was rescued 138 hours into his ordeal. Crying rescuers called it a miracle, with one saying that they weren’t expecting to find anyone alive but as they were digging, they saw his eyes and he said his name. In the same province, NTV also reported that a baby boy named Hamza was found alive in Antakya 140 hours after the quake. Some details of his rescue, including how he survived so long, weren’t immediately clear.

Not every attempt ended happily. Zeynep Kahraman, who was brought out of the rubble after a spectacular rescue that took 50 hours, died at the hospital overnight. The ISAR German team who rescued her were shocked.

“It is important that the family could say goodbye, that they could see each other one more time, that they could hug each other again,” a member of the rescue team told German media.

The rescues came amid growing frustration over the Turkish government’s response to the earthquake, which has killed 24,617 people and injured at least 80,000 people in Turkey alone.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged earlier in the week that the initial response was hampered by the extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure.

That has meant rescue crews have had to pick and choose how and where to help.

During a tour of quake-damaged cities Saturday, Erdogan said a disaster of this scope was rare and again referred to it as the “disaster of the century.”

But the challenges facing aid efforts were of little comfort to those waiting for help.

In Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, scattered rescue crews were still hard at work but many residents had left by Saturday. Among those who stayed were people with family still buried. Many of them had been camping in the streets for days and sleeping in cars.

Acting on a tip, a rescue team from Hong Kong found three survivors under a building near the city’s center on Saturday, said Gallant Wong, the group’s spokesperson.

But Bulent Cifcifli, a local man, said he has been waiting for days for crews to pull his mother’s body from her collapsed home.