Debris, rescue and hope at the epicenter of the earthquake in Turkey

NURDAGI, Turkey – Zeliha Hisir tried to speak but was barely able to move after her many hours of rescue on Tuesday near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria.

The 58-year-old’s eyes darted around in shock and relief as rescuers covered her in a hot pink and green fluffy blanket. Dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, she survived the freezing cold in Kahramanmaras.

Her son, Mufit Hisir, told The Associated Press that firefighters who flew in from Antalya rescued his relatives.

“Two hours ago my brother was rescued after six hours of effort. And saving my mother took two hours. They are both fine,” he said.

Crowds of people gathered at crash sites across Turkey, steam seeping through the air as people inhaled and exhaled, waiting to find more survivors. Even those who survived or escaped the collapse of Monday’s 7.8 quake and its aftershocks have now been forced to sleep in cars, on the street or in government shelters.

Many felt abandoned.

“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heater, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad condition. We all get wet in the rain, and our children are in the cold,” Aisan Kurt, 27, told AP. “We did not die of starvation or an earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold. It should not be. No one is sending help.”

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In the province of Kahramanmaras, where supermarket shelves were empty, people lined up for pita bread at a restaurant owned by Mevlut Ercan.

“We need flour. There is no flour,” said Erkan. “People are desperate. We are also desperate. We will do everything in our power for the people, as long as we are able to do it.

Yasar Magara, who was waiting to get a piece of lavash, said: “We have been starving for several days. Our municipality and others have not helped us yet.”

Residents of the city of Nurdagi, who have lost loved ones, say that relatives could have been saved if rescuers had arrived earlier. Steel rods jutted out of the shattered concrete like vines that rescuers had to bypass in a city nestled under snow-covered hills.

“My sister has four children. She has a daughter-in-law, sons-in-law, nephews and nieces.

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The men wept as they blessed four dead bodies wrapped in blankets in the back of a pickup truck.

Sixteen-year-old Havva Topal never heard from her uncle, his wife and children, who were in the burning building.

“We didn’t hear anything, no news,” she said. “After the earthquake, the building collapsed, and after 15-20 minutes a fire started. Neither firefighters nor excavators arrived. We tried to save them on our own, bailing out the water with stoves.”

“The wife of our landlord was taken out yesterday,” she later added. “They were charred, torn to pieces, in a terrible state.”