‘The situation is incredibly bad’: South Bay man in Turkey tries to help family after earthquake

A South Bay resident who was in Turkey when the deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck early Monday is now trying to smuggle his family out of one of the hardest-hit areas.

Omer Artun, who lives in Los Gatos, was in Istanbul on Monday, about to fly south to Antakya to see his family members when the earthquake hit.

“I was going to fly on Sunday, but then I had an appointment with the doctor, so I said: “I will go on Monday,” Artun said.

Artun has 25 family members who are currently displaced. Most of them were injured, and some distant family members are believed to have died.

“The number of cities affected, the number of people affected and the extent of their impact is simply unthinkable,” Artun said.

The original purpose of Artun’s trip was to see his 83-year-old aunt, who is recovering from cancer.

Early Monday morning, Artun said she was on the top floor of a six-story building when the earthquake struck. The bottom two floors collapsed, and Aunt Artuna was trapped in an apartment leaning against a neighboring building.

“She was rescued after 10 hours,” Artun said. “Part of the wall collapsed on her and she broke her hip. She is in the hospital now.”

She is in a good mood, but others are not in such high spirits.

“The situation is incredibly bad,” Artun said. “They’re still in shock.”

Artun is a consultant and owner of Meyhouse restaurants in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto.

He will be in Turkey for a few more weeks to help, but even that is proving to be a difficult task because he cannot travel to the region where his family lives.

“All the way to get down there, there’s a lot of snow now,” he said. “The road conditions are terrible. And they also restrict the passage of civilians into the city by car.”

But he will continue to send funds and work to move them to a safe place.

“They don’t have money, they don’t have access to anything,” Artun said. “I’m trying to coordinate medical care, they stay in the hospital and then some of them stay in hotels and so on outside the affected region.”