How a one-room unit managing massive int’l rescue ops after Türkiye quakes

Maps plastered on the partitions throughout have huge purple circles declaring the catastrophe zones.

Phones are ringing continually and there’s a cacophony of overlapping chatter as conversations stream in a number of completely different languages.

This one-room unit has been arrange in a container on the outskirts of Kahramanmaras metropolis, one of many areas devastated within the February 6 twin temblors which have claimed greater than 35,000 lives in southeastern Türkiye.

The UN centre, run in shut coordination with the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), was up and operating only a day later, tasked with the essential job of supervising the handfuls of worldwide groups that flew into the nation to assist in search and rescue efforts.

From inside this container, individuals have been managing at the least 30 groups from round 28 international locations working in Kahramanmaras.

Founded in 1991, the UN-led International Search and Rescue Advisory Group, or INSARAG, is described as a community of disaster-prone and disaster-responding international locations and organizations devoted to city search and rescue and operational discipline coordination.

Manages planning, operations, and logistics

Led by a Singaporean official Nizam, the centre in Türkiye has at the least 5 INSARAG-trained individuals managing entrance, registration, planning, operations, and logistics desks. The coordination crew additionally consists of younger Turkish assistants for translation and different crucial native insights. 

Nizam, an UN-trained official with 25 years of service, advised Anadolu that 18 international groups had left the southern province by Tuesday night after weeklong search and rescue operations.

“Due to the unified and collective efforts of all our international teams, we were able to rescue 115 survivors,” he stated. 

READ MORE: The tech serving to save lives after Türkiye’s lethal earthquakes

Teams should be self-sufficient

By Tuesday, worldwide groups had additionally recovered greater than 1,000 our bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings.

According to Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry, 9,315 personnel from 80 nations had arrived within the nation till Monday – precisely per week because the catastrophe struck – to assist out in catastrophe zones in Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, and Kahramanmaras.

The INSARAG unit has been working across the clock since February 7, receiving worldwide groups, serving to them arrange, and coordinating with AFAD on their ahead deployment.

“The deployment of international teams is done on a needs-based assessment, which also depends on the capacity of the international teams,” Nazim defined, gesturing to areas marked on the maps hanging above desks cluttered with computer systems, headsets, and paperwork.

The coordination crew has two conferences each morning at 0330GMT) and 0600GMT, he stated.

“During these meetings, we check our capacity, coordinate with AFAD, and prepare our schedules for deployment of the teams,” defined the Singaporean official, who additionally labored throughout the 2018 Indonesia earthquake and catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

“Our priority is to save more lives and that means highly trained teams are sent to places where we get information that people may be trapped,” he added.

Asked about what worldwide groups want most for profitable operations in disaster-hit areas, Nazim immediately replied: “self-sufficiency.”

“A team has to be self-sufficient,” he stated, including that they need to be absolutely geared up with the required instruments, meals, medicines, and another provides.

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“We do not want to be a burden on the host country which is already battling a disaster. Being self-sufficient is the first requirement for any team,” he reiterated.

His personal crew, he stated, has been working in shifts and sleeping in the identical container the place they work. 

Nazim stated worldwide groups are deployed on the idea of their capability, categorized as “heavy, mid, and light.”

“The heavy team if fully equipped, includes canines and cutting and breaking tools, while the mid-level team may or may not have canines along,” he stated.

“The light category teams just have basic search and rescue equipment,” he added.

All of Nazim’s crew members are from Singapore, barring one from Belarus who manages logistics.

“This is the 20th overseas deployment mission for Singaporean officials to coordinate disaster response efforts,” he stated, praising his colleagues’ “good communication and coordination skills.”

READ MORE: Türkiye quakes ‘distinctive pure phenomenon’: President Erdogan

‘Pancake collapse of buildings’

Communication is often the primary casualty of any catastrophe nevertheless it “does not have an impact” on groups just like the one led by Nazim.

“INSARAG has its own communications system which is independent of any local communications system,” he advised Anadolu.

After the earthquakes, cell and web providers had been quickly affected in Kahramanmaras and different catastrophe zones, however have since been restored. 

“We use INSARAG Coordination Management System, or ICMS, and all international teams are registered with it and have online accounts,” the official defined.

Teams log into the system earlier than flying to a catastrophe space to get linked for deployment and coordination, he added. 

“We also have satellite phones and our own Wi-Fi system, besides WhatsApp groups for instant messaging,” he stated. 

On the dimensions of the catastrophe, Nazim stated it’s “widespread.”

“We are responding to the biggest (in recent times) in terms of damages done due to the pancake collapse of buildings,” he emphasised.

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Source: TRTWorld and companies