Photo by [USA Today]
On Monday, Turkey’s Hatay province was the centre of another set of earthquakes. This follows the devastation and destruction caused by the 7.8 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, which caused the death of approximately 47 000 people.
Reports suggest the 6.3 magnitude earthquake occurred at around 20h00 on Monday. It was followed by a 5.8 aftershock minutes later.
Initially, the Turkish Interior Minister reported just three casualties and over 200 injuries. However, the number of people killed, injured and trapped beneath buildings has marginally increased in Turkey and Syria.
Last Night’s Quakes in Hatay
Hasina Gori, Salaamedia’s ground reporter, said she was shocked and overwhelmed given the news of the earthquakes in the Hatay province, as she gets ready to depart home to South Africa from Turkey.
During her travels in affected provinces, she adds, they had met many people who were survivors of the earthquakes. When the news broke of the quakes in the province, she managed to speak to some of them. She said many “felt the tremors, many saying that they’re scared and many saying [it] was re-triggering for them”.
“I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed, especially given the news last night that there was a set of earthquakes that hit the Hatay province yesterday. I think that has been very destabilising, especially having been in that area seeing the devastation that we saw [which] already took place. People just trying to pick up their lives once again or even understand what happened, and then having an earthquake hit last night [and] another one just a few minutes later, I think it has been quite a shock.”
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On The Ground in Turkey
Gori spent over a week in Turkey, travelling, assisting and reporting on the destruction caused by the earthquakes.
She had visited numerous provinces and towns, detailing the catastrophe of the areas, the conditions of the people, and the rescue and relief efforts being made for survivors.
On her journeys, Gori had visited the Hatay province days after the catastrophic twin earthquakes destroyed buildings and residential homes in the area.
“What we saw there was streets upon streets of just devastation. Every time we thought that this was the worst we’ve seen, you saw even worse. It’s communities that were just razed to the ground. All that’s left sometimes is remnants.”
With that bleak description of the city of Hatay given a few days ago by Gori, one can imagine how the new set of earthquakes has affected the province.
