Three weeks after a pair of earthquakes struck southeastern Türkiye, many survivors nonetheless recall the horror of being caught beneath the rubble of buildings that collapsed through the tremors and aftershocks.
Semra Özkolay, from Adıyaman, was rescued together with her three youngsters from the wreckage after being caught for 12 hours and shared her expertise with an Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent Sunday.
“There is no point in rebelling. Let’s hug each other as a nation, hoping to get over this event as soon as possible. If the sun rises every day, life goes on. If the sun rises, there is hope,” she stated.
Özkolay, 35, is being handled at Istanbul’s Professor Dr. Cemil Taşcıoğlu City Hospital. Explaining that she was with considered one of her youngsters through the earthquake and that she needed to take the opposite two from the room they have been in and go away the constructing, Özkolay stated: “While I was trying to escape from the building with my children, the walls collapsed on us. I heard my children crying and my leg was stuck. At that time, I thought to myself, ‘We’re dead, this is it.'”
“This second is really inexplicable, you possibly can solely perceive it in case you reside it.”
Explaining that she wasn’t scared for her personal life however that the crying of her youngsters devastated her, she acknowledged that the constructing the place they have been residing was not totally demolished and that fortunately, first her youngsters after which she was pulled out from the rubble.
In Diyarbakir, 20-year-old Sena Yaman additionally stated in an interview with AA that her cat, which was trapped within the closely broken constructing for 19 days, was rescued because of the exhausting work of the groups.
Yaman, who was injured because of the extreme injury to her home in Diyarbakır, the place the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes prompted widespread destruction, stated she wakened when the earthquake hit and tried to search out her cat Zeno proper after she reached her brother.
Explaining that her normally very calm cat panicked through the quake, Yaman stated she herself was caught beneath the rubble when the bed room wall collapsed.
“We have been so scared. I used to be hanging from the open a part of the columns. I might have fallen down if the rubble hadn’t fallen on me and held my ft. I advised my mother, ‘Don’t transfer or I’ll slide down.”’
”I could not really feel my ft. Both of my ft have been caught. My mom eliminated the rubble and saved me,” Yaman stated, explaining that they went down the hearth escape to the decrease flooring and exited the constructing with the assistance of the residents.
After receiving remedy for her accidents, she stated that her thoughts was at all times on her cat Zeno, who was nonetheless caught inside the house.
Yaman stated that she targeted on saving her cat after being discharged. “We requested the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) officers and all the staff within the wreckage to assist us by telling them that our cat was inside. I can stroll with crutches. We have been there daily, each hour, we have been always going. I volunteered to enter the constructing, however they would not let me because of security issues. Every day, I went to the entrance of the closely broken constructing to avoid wasting my cat. A drone was flown into our home and once I noticed the state of the home, I knew my cat cannot get out of there.”
However, by calling out “Zeno” and listening to her meowing after 19 days of the earthquake, Yaman defined she couldn’t imagine she had survived. “Hiding behind the heater, she finally came out,” Yaman stated, thanking the police officer who provided his assist on the time.
Another survivor, retired instructor Ebubekir Aküzüm, 73, who stayed along with his spouse and 12-year-old son within the rubble of the residence in Adıyaman, was rescued round 4 hours after the earthquake.
Stating that the constructing collapsed like a bit of paper, Aküzüm stated: “After the severe earthquake, I held my child’s arm. I tried to protect the child. When the floors above collapsed on us, we were stuck face down.”
Aküzüm was along with his spouse Nevziye, 51, and son Deniz Mahir, 12, of their home on the second flooring through the earthquake. He stated he was taken out of the rubble and brought to the hospital for remedy 4 hours after the quake struck.
It was decided that Aküzüm had a damaged finger and bruises on his hand and arm. Aküzüm, who traveled to Batman along with his household from Adıyaman for remedy, stated he and his son moved to his spouse’s relative’s home after he was discharged.
Nevziye Aküzüm has undergone three surgical procedures because of edema in her proper arm and shoulder as a result of heavy particles. Before the catastrophe, she labored as a main college inspector on the Directorate of National Education. She remains to be being handled on the hospital.
Elaborating on how they received trapped and rescued, Ebubekir Aküzüm stated: “My youngster was mendacity subsequent to me. My son, he’s solely 12 years outdated. I wakened instantly after we felt the earthquake. I grabbed his arm. ‘Run, rise up shortly, there may be an earthquake,’ I stated to my son. My spouse was within the different room, she got here working from there. We may see the bed room door, however I couldn’t attain the door, nor she may come to the door. Meanwhile, in the mean time of the violent shaking, I held my kid’s arm. I attempted to guard the kid. We have been pinned face down on the bottom. The constructing fell to the bottom like paper. Our residence was on the second flooring in central Adıyaman on Cumhuriyet Mahallesi (Republic Street). The place was destroyed. We have been caught within the wreckage.”
”We have been rescued by the residents. They took first our youngster out,” he stated.
Among the various different residents who have been rescued from the rubble and whose remedy continues in native hospitals or hospitals within the capital Ankara and Istanbul are two sisters who nearly misplaced their arms after being caught beneath the particles of a collapsed constructing in Adıyaman.
The sisters, who have been saved with oxygen remedy from having their arms amputated, cling to life by gaining power from one another, the personnel of the hospital in Gaziantep shared with AA.
The remedy of 13-year-old Sümeyye Turmaz and 24-year-old sister Sebahat Turmaz, who have been rescued by their brother seven hours after the earthquake occurred, continues at Medical Point Hospital in Gaziantep.
According to the newest official figures from the AFAD, greater than 44,000 individuals have misplaced their lives after the Feb. 6 earthquakes within the south and southeast.
Meanwhile, efforts to offer assist and remedy in native and subject hospitals established within the area additionally proceed, with over 30 hospitals being arrange by overseas nations as of Friday, the Foreign Ministry famous.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
