Emergency crews made a series of dramatic rescues in Turkey on Friday, pulling several people from the rubble four days after a catastrophic 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 23,000 in Turkey and Syria.
Temperatures remain below freezing across the large region, and many people have no place to shelter.
The Turkish government has distributed millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but is still struggling to reach many people in need, Associated Press reported.
The United Nations has pledged a $25 million grant for people in earthquake-stricken areas of Syria. That’s in addition to a $25 million grant announced earlier this week for emergency operations in both Turkey and Syria.
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday the new grant from the U.N. emergency fund would help meet the urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of Syrians.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said around 130 urban search-and-rescue teams from around the world are working in Turkey, and another 57 teams are on their way.
In response to Syrian critics who say the U.N. isn’t doing enough to help find victims, the spokesperson said the U.N. does not have its own search-and-rescue teams. Instead, it has a coordinating role through its disaster assessment teams.
A U.N. disaster assessment team is in Syria and deploying to government-controlled Aleppo, Homs and Latakia, Dujarric said. A second U.N. aid convoy entered Syria’s rebel-held enclave on Friday from Turkey, bringing shelter and non-food items.
Syria’s state news agency SANA says paramedics have succeeded in pulling a mother and her two adult children from under the rubble of a building in the coastal town of Jableh.
The three were immediately rushed away in ambulances late Friday, the fifth day after the earthquake that hit Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 23,000 people.
Although experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the chances of finding survivors are dimming. The rescues Friday in Syria and Turkey have provided fleeting moments of joy and relief amid the misery gripping the shattered region, where morgues and cemeteries are overwhelmed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the powerful earthquake that ravaged parts of southeast Turkey as “one of the greatest disasters our nation has faced in its history.”
Touring the province of Adiyaman on Friday, Erdogan said search-and-rescue efforts would continue until no one is left trapped beneath the rubble.
He renewed a promise to rebuild the area within the year, and also said the government would subsidize rents for one year for people unwilling to stay in tents.
