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72 Hours Later

Supporting Rescue Operations in Syria

By People in need

February 9^th, 2023

More than 72 hours have passed since a tremendous earthquake struck Türkiye and Syria, leaving thousands dead and injured. Others have been trapped under rubble, awaiting tireless rescue teams to burrow them out of danger and debris.

In the small hours of the 6th of February, Um Ammar awoke to what she thought was heavy thunder. Frightened, she darted out from under her blanket, grabbed hold of her infant grandchild, and fled barefoot into the garden below where she took shelter under a tree.

"Even at that point, we didn't know it was an earthquake as it was so dark," she said, "we couldn't see a thing".

Her neighbours called out to her. They shouted into the dark. In a matter of seconds, their apartment building came down in a wave of rubble and dust. Um Ammar doesn't know what happened to them. She said her neighbours are either dead, trapped in the ruin, or in the hospital. She hasn't seen them since that night.

Armanaz, the town in northern Syria where Um Ammar lives, lies some 200 kilometres southwest of Gaziantep, the Turkish city close to the epicentre of the earthquake. The 7.8 magnitude quake that devastated Türkiye and Syria was the strongest to strike the region in more than 80 years. It collapsed thousands of buildings, claimed nearly 16,000 lives, and left many more injured and homeless.

As the sun began to rise on the morning of the 6th, it revealed the extent of the devastation in Armanaz. Immediately, volunteers and members of the Syria Civil Defense braved freezing temperatures as they began digging through the debris in a desperate search for survivors.

It was a race against time.

The first 72 hours after an earthquake is a critical time frame after which the survival rate falls to 5-10%, with most rescue efforts usually called off after five to seven days. Whether someone is found within these 'golden hours' is a matter of life and death.

The first step of the rescue operation was to use heavy machinery: excavators, mobile cranes, and hydraulic jacks, to shift the largest slabs of concrete, parting huge piles of rubble to rescue those trapped under the remains of what had once been their homes.

After the large debris was removed, the machines fell silent as the rescue teams listened out for even the faintest sign of life. At the first hint of noise, teams of volunteers then used small tools like pickaxes, shovels, or sometimes even their bare hands to reach the survivors; a task made even more difficult by the harsh winter conditions. In the first night after the earthquake, temperatures in Armanaz plummeted below zero.

To support the rescue effort in this precious 72-hour window, People in Need (PIN) donated 50,000 litres of petrol to rescue workers around Idleb and to the north of Aleppo to fuel their heavy machinery. This has helped to maintain the momentum of round-the-clock rescue operations throughout this vital period.

A short distance from Um Ammar's street, in the Al-Taleh neighbourhood in the same small town of Armanaz, Zaher lost nine members of his family when their apartment building collapsed. He stood in front of the heap of rubble after a tense rescue effort and recounted the events of the night before.

"My first cousin and his family died when the third floor caved in on them," he said. "My second cousin and his family tried to escape, but the stairs were destroyed and the roof collapsed, killing them too. On the ground floor, my third cousin and his family survived, although his children were injured. The entire building is completely destroyed."

Three other members of Zaher's family were lucky enough to be saved from the ruin in the first 72-hour period. The heavy machinery that helped to dig them out from under heaps of concrete and dust require gallons of fuel to operate, which is difficult to sustain in resource-stricken northwest Syria. An excavator will use an estimated seven litres of fuel per hour, and a mobile crane nine litres. Fuel donations made by PIN will help to keep rescue operations going for a potentially lifesaving period of time.

PIN's response will not end after only donating fuel, however. In the coming days, People in Need will work in cooperation with community kitchens and volunteers to distribute thousands of warm meals to those affected by the earthquake, many of whom have lost homes and loved ones.

At the same time, PIN is in the process of setting up financial aid distributions for vulnerable families in northwest Syria. These cash handouts will help Syrians purchase food, winter clothes, and contribute towards home repairs as well as other basic necessities.

PIN has been providing aid in northern Syria for many years, and its Syrian staff remain ready to distribute vital aid in an area already struggling with the effects of protracted conflict, displacement, and disaster.