A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked
southeastern Turkey on Thursday (May 1), leveling dozens of homes and buildings.
Local officials in Bingol, where the quake was centered, reported that
an estimated 150 people were killed and up to 400 others injured, but warned
the death toll could escalate as rescue efforts continued.
The quake struck at 3:27 a.m. local
time (8:27 p.m. Wednesday EST) and razed 25 buildings in the city, including
a four-story dormitory housing more than 190 students.
Soldiers, civilian defense teams, and citizens worked frantically to reach an estimated 140 children feared trapped in the rubble of the Celtiksuyu Primary Boarding School. More than 50 students were safely rescued.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan toured the damaged city on Thursday amid more than 70 aftershocks, the largest of which measured 3.8 on the Richter Scale.
"All of our state organizations and the Red Crescent are now in Bingol," Erdogan told reporters when questioned about the planned response.
Following a crisis meeting in its Kizilay Disaster Operations Center shortly after the quake struck, the Turkish Red Crescent Society dispatched medical teams to the affected area and expedited the delivery of critical emergency supplies, including food, 2,100 tents and 8,100 blankets.
"The biggest challenge facing us is helping the people who are afraid to go back into their houses because of the aftershocks by providing them with temporary shelter, food and anything else they might need," Oktay Ergunay, director of the Turkish Red Crescent's disaster operations center, said.
Supplies were pre-positioned in Silopi in anticipation of an influx of refugees from Iraq.
Bingol State Hospital says that ambulance services are particularly needed, while electricity and communications have also been cut off in the area. In response, the Society has supplied four ambulances and search and rescue teams to contribute to the immediate recovery.
As the recovery operation gets underway, the Society has plans to send another 4,500 tents that can accommodate 25,000 people.
Bingol lies on the Eastern Anatolia Fault Line, placing it in a first degree earthquake zone. The last major earthquake there, on May 22 1971, claimed 900 lives.
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