[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]ANTAKYA: After the third significant earthquake in two weeks intensified an exodus from the once-vibrant metropolis, trucks, emergency vehicles, and excavators lined the deserted streets of Antakya in Turkey on Tuesday night.
Headlights from passing vehicles illuminated piles of debris, broken window frames, and coiled rebar in the pitch-black streets. Military and police vehicles’ red and blue flashing lights reflected off the angular building facades.
Police, troops, and emergency personnel watched as excavators clawed out debris while they stood around little fires scattered over the crumbling sidewalks. The digging would occasionally stop so that rescue personnel could search for potential bodies.
Everyone is gone,” said Mehmet Ay, a 50-year-old survivor of the quakes who has been living in Antakya his entire life, and is one of the few residents who have remained.
“They have either died or have fled.”
From a distance, the sharp cityscape of what used to be tall buildings now appeared crenulated. Chunks of the riverbanks were collapsed into the water, while soldiers blocked off damaged bridges.
Billboards were smashed into the ground and the scattered signage among the rubble stood as reminders of the shops that used to fill the busy streets.
“Our streets used to be paradise,” said Ay. “In a single night, everything was destroyed.”
Ay was sheltering with his wife Fatmeh and their daughter in one of the camps set up to provide temporary shelter to those who lost their homes. A generator roared over the chatter of people gathered around wood stoves outside their tents.
“We can’t leave the camp,” he said. “It’s difficult to walk around because it’s dangerous anywhere you go. The buildings are dangerous. Before you know it, a structure can collapse on you.”
Earlier, as the sun set over a square next to the city hall, soldiers, volunteers and survivors lined up at food trucks and service stations for dinner and tea.
There was still a standing statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk riding a rearing horse at a roundabout. A marble plaque with his well-known remark about Hatay province joining Turkey lay broken on the ground immediately below it.
Saleem Fawakirji, a 57-year-old dishwasher who fled Syria 12 years ago and now lives in Antakya, stated, “The calamity came on all of us.” His wife Walaa further clarified, “The affluent and poor alike.”
By crawling out of a tiny crevice in the debris, the couple, their two children, and a son survived the earthquake on February 6. They lost their oldest son.
Ay said that he intended to stick around.
Ay, a construction worker, stated, “We will reconstruct it, but it will take a long time, years.”
It will be better than it was, God willing.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
