Categoria: earthquakes

‘Our Building Is Ruined…they Need Help’: LA Cafe Raises Funds For Turkish Quake Victims

When Irem Gulum heard of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that tore her hometown of Gaziantep, Turkey apart, her first thought was of her parents.

Fortunately, they survived. Their apartment and their valuables did not.

Gulum showed up to her job at Berlins kebab restaurant in Beverly Grove this week feeling utterly despondent, but restaurant owner Matthias Classen had an idea to help.

“She came into work because she doesn’t really have anybody else in L.A., so she hung out with us to have some company and she was just crying and devastated and I felt so helpless with all of this,” said Classen in an interview with the Southern California News Group. “I thought there’s definitely something we could do.”

Irem Gulum, left, with Matthias Classen, the owner of Berlin kebab restaurant in Beverly Hills, launched a GoFundMe to send supplies to earthquake victims including friends and family of Irem in Turkey at Berlins Kebab Restuarant in Los Angeles on Thursday, February 9, 2023. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG) Classen started a GoFundMe to raise money for Gulum’s family and other victims. He has personally donated $1,000 and vowed to donate all restaurant tips this month to the fund.

Irem Gulum’s parents survived the earthquake but lost their home in Gaziantep, Turkey (Courtesy of Irem Gulum) The plan is to use that money to purchase items that are in the highest need including generators, tents and personal hygiene items and then ship them to Turkey.

“Money doesn’t really do much for them, since the banks are closed, so we need to find a way to get items that the people really need and ship them out there as quickly as we can,” said Classen.

Gulum’s parents are living in their car in a village outside of Gaziantep with little plan for what comes next.

“They are staying outside in cars because our building is ruined and they need help,” said Gulum, in a video to promote the GoFundMe. “It’s windy, cold, rainy and some areas have flooded.”

Survivors of the recent earthquake use a fire for warmth in a shelter near Gaziantep, Turkey (Photo courtesy of Irem Gulum) Her parents are too scared to go indoors as they fear another earthquake could strike, she added.

The initial 7.8 Richter earthquake hit in the early hours of Monday, Feb. 6, and has been followed by more than 100 aftershocks. The estimated death toll has risen to 21,000 people across Turkey and Syria.

Informal shelters have cropped up in villages, stadiums and still-standing structures to help shelter the survivors. People are battling the cold winter temperatures and relying on fire for warmth as electric power remains out  across most parts of the impacted region. Rescue efforts are ongoing, but hope of pulling more victims from the rubble dissipates by the hour.

Many people, Gulum’s parents included, lost not only their homes but also their life savings.

Due to the high rates of economic instability and inflation in Turkey many people hold their money in gold, silver or other valuables they store in their homes, Classen said. When these homes went down, so did these savings.

The tragedy in Turkey affected Classen personally, not just because of Gulum, but also because of the time he spent living in Turkey from 2001 to 2003. His restaurant, Berlins, has several Turkish employees and serves many Turkish customers, because its signature doner kebabs are beloved by Germans and Turks alike.

Classen, who originally hails from German, noted that his home country has been quick to respond to the crisis by sending supplies and rescue teams.

“I see a lot of this (action) happening in German,” said Classen. “Here in America I don’t see very much due to it (Turkey) probably being so foreign to Americans.”

Classen hopes the GoFundMe will help raise awareness about the devastation in Turkey and rally Angelenos to the cause. The fundraiser can be found at gofund.me/3e84d231

LA City Firefighters Host Regional Search-And-Rescue Training At Disaster City

Thursday, Feb. 9 was the 52nd anniversary of the Sylmar Earthquake, which killed more than 60 people, heavily damaged Olive View Medical Center and Veterans Hospital, partially collapsed freeway interchanges, and caused the near-total failure of Lower Van Norman Dam, forcing thousands of people downstream to evacuate.

So it was timely that on Thursday the Los Angeles City Fire Department held a Regional Technical Search Specialist Course event at the department’s “Disaster City” built behind Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks. At Disaster City, urban search and rescue task forces from fire departments throughout the region “learned the latest search operations using specialized equipment,” said Captain Erik Scott, L.A. City Fire Department.

“It went very well,” Scott said of the training for a half-dozen urban search and rescue task forces who tried out  the simulated disaster zone. “It was a timely pre-planned training event that is very important in the light of the earthquake in Turkey and the 1971 quake in Sylmar.”

Four teams systematically searched the “disaster” area using specialized technical equipment such as snake-eye cameras that “you can put in the cracks in rubble … to look for people who might be in the rubble,” Scott said, and sensitive listening devices “that are magnetic and can be placed on walls to listen through them if someone is trapped inside.”

The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) Regional Technical Search Specialist Course, or “Disaster City,” brings regional disaster response Instructors and students together to practice and learn lifesaving search skills at the John Ruedy Memorial Training Center at Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks CA, Thursday, Feb 9. 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) Regional Technical Search Specialist Course, or “Disaster City,” brings regional disaster response Instructors and students together to practice and learn lifesaving search skills at the John Ruedy Memorial Training Center at Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks CA, Thursday, Feb 9. 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

Java dog with CA-TF-1 sniffs for simulated victims at the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) Regional Technical Search Specialist Course at “Disaster City” behind LA City Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks CA, Thursday, Feb 9. 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) Regional Technical Search Specialist Course, or “Disaster City,” brings regional disaster response Instructors and students together to practice and learn lifesaving search skills at the John Ruedy Memorial Training Center at Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks CA, Thursday, Feb 9. 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) Regional Technical Search Specialist Course, or “Disaster City,” brings regional disaster response Instructors and students together to practice and learn lifesaving search skills at the John Ruedy Memorial Training Center at Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks CA, Thursday, Feb 9. 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

Los Angeles City Fire Battalion Chief Craig White(R) talks during press conference at the Search Specialist Course, or “Disaster City” at John Ruedy Memorial Training Center at Fire Station 88 in Sherman Oaks CA, Thursday, Feb 9. 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)

To make it seem all too real, the teams could sometimes hear “a baby crying,” or “a person moaning from pain.”

The trainees used hand-held CPS to track their own movements, marking where the had already been so they could move on to areas not yet searched. “That information is sent back to the commanders in real time” where the incident commanders and decision-makers at Disaster City could update their strategic tactics, said Scott.

The recently renovated training site is formally known as the John Ruedy Memorial Training Center, and is a reminder, Scott noted, “that our firefighters are in a constant mode of training.”

Race To Find Quake Survivors Continues As Aid Pours Into Turkey, Syria

By MEHMET GUZEL, GHAITH ALSAYED and SUZAN FRASER

NURDAGI, Turkey — Search teams and emergency aid from around the world poured into Turkey and Syria on Tuesday as rescuers working in freezing temperatures dug — sometimes with their bare hands — through the remains of buildings flattened by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The death toll soared above 5,000 and was still expected to rise.

But with the damage spread over a wide area, the massive relief operation often struggled to reach devastated towns, and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent.

“We could hear their voices, they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdagi.

In the end, it was left to Silo, a Syrian who arrived from Hama a decade ago, and other residents to recover the bodies and those of two other victims.

Monday’s quake cut a swath of destruction that stretched hundreds of kilometers (miles) across southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria, toppling thousands of buildings and heaping more misery on a region shaped by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.

Aftershocks then rattled tangled piles of metal and concrete, making the search efforts perilous, while freezing temperatures made them ever more urgent.

People sit on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A woman sits on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Rescue workers and medics carry 8-year-old boy Arda Gul from the debris of a collapsed building in Elbistan, Kahramanmaras, in southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Arda’s parents and grandmother were found dead. Rescuers raced Tuesday to rescue survivors from the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (Ismail Coskun/IHA via AP)

A woman sits on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A woman sits on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Emergency teams search for people under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A top view shows destroyed buildings in Nurdagi town on the outskirts of Osmaniye city southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Rescue teams search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Rescue teams carry the body of a victim from a destroyed building in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Rescue teams search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Rescue teams carry the body of a victim from a destroyed building in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A Russian soldier inspects the wreckage of collapsed buildings, in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Russian soldiers and Syrian security forces inspect the wreckage of collapsed buildings, in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A man sits inside a destroyed building as another one talks to him, in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People pass a destroyed building, in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People and emergency teams search for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building, in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People sort and pack relief supplies at a collection point for the Turkish community in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Hundreds of members of Berlin’s Turkish community flocked to a music school in the German capital to donate essential humanitarian supplies after southern Turkey and northern Syria were hit by double earthquakes on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

People make a human chain to stack boxes filled with relief supplies at a collection point of the Turkish community in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Hundreds of members of Berlin’s Turkish community flocked to a music school in the German capital to donate essential humanitarian supplies after southern Turkey and northern Syria were hit by double earthquakes on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

People gather outside a destroyed building, in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People and emergency teams search for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building, in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man searches for people in the rubble of a destroyed building, in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Fire burns containers at the port in the earthquake-stricken town of Iskenderun, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Emergency rescue members search for people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Emergency rescue members search for people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Emergency team members carry a body of a person found in the rubble of a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Emergency team members carry a body of a person found in the rubble of a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A woman cries in Iskenderun town, southern Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. A powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey and Syria early Monday, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing and injuring thousands of people. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Emergency rescue members search for people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

People react as they sit on the wreckage of collapsed buildings, in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Emergency rescue members carry a body of a person found in the rubble of a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Emergency rescue members search for people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

An emergency rescue team member is comforted by teammates after they found two bodies of people in a destroyed building in Adana, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The scale of the suffering — and the accompanying rescue effort — were staggering.

More than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkey alone, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, said Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay. They huddled in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centers, while others spent the night outside in blankets gathering around fires.

Many took to social media to plead for assistance for loved ones believed to be trapped under the rubble — and Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Interior Ministry officials as saying all calls were being “collected meticulously” and the information relayed to search teams.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million were affected in some way — and declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces in order to manage the response.

For the entire quake-hit area, that number could be as high as 23 million people, according to Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization.

“This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region,” Marschang said in Geneva.

Teams from nearly 30 countries around the world headed for Turkey or Syria.

As promises of help flooded in, Turkey said it would only allow vehicles carrying aid to enter the worst-hit provinces of Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman and Hatay in order to speed the effort.

The United Nations said it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to rebel-held northwestern Syria, where millions live in extreme poverty and rely on humanitarian aid to survive.

Nurgul Atay told The Associated Press she could hear her mother’s voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, but that her and others’ efforts to get into the ruins had been futile without any heavy equipment to help.

“If only we could lift the concrete slab we’d be able to reach her,” she said. “My mother is 70 years old, she won’t be able to withstand this for long.”

But in the northwestern Syrian town of Jinderis, a young girl called Nour was pulled alive from the wreckage of a collapsed building Monday.

A rescuer cradled her head in his hands and tenderly wiped dust from around her eyes as she lay amid crushed concrete and twisted metal before being pulled out and passed to another man.

Turkey has large numbers of troops in the border region with Syria and has tasked the military to aid in the rescue efforts, including setting up tents for the homeless and a field hospital in Hatay province. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said a humanitarian aid brigade based in Ankara and eight military search and rescue teams had also been deployed.

A navy ship docked on Tuesday at the province’s port of Iskenderun, where a hospital collapsed, to transport survivors in need of medical care to a nearby city. Thick, black smoke rose from another area of the port, where firefighters have not yet been able to douse a fire that broke out among shipping containers toppled by the earthquake.

In northern Syria, meanwhile, Sebastien Gay, the head of mission in the country for Doctors Without Borders, said health facilities were overwhelmed with medical personnel working around “around the clock to respond to the huge numbers of wounded.”

The affected area in Syria is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the Syrian civil war.

The rebel-held enclave is packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of the country by the war. Many live in buildings that were already damaged by military bombardments.

Erdogan said the total number of deaths in Turkey had passed 3,500, with some 22,000 people injured.

The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed over 800, with some 1,400 injured, according to the Health Ministry. The country’s rebel-held northwest also saw at least 800 die, according to the White Helmets, the emergency organization leading rescue operations, with more than 2,200 injured.

The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday’s quake at 7.8, with a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles). Hours later, another quake, likely triggered by the first, struck more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away with 7.5 magnitude.

Alsayed reported from Azmarin, Syria, while Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok, Zeynep Bilginsoy and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, and Riazat Butt in Islamabad, contributed to this report.