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Mother, baby and grandmother pulled from rubble after Turkish quake
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
October 25th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
October 25th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
There is a heartwarming story to emerge from the devastating earthquake
in eastern Turkey. A mother, her two week old baby girl and her paternal
grandmother have all been pulled to safety from their collapsed
apartment building. The family's ordeal is not over just yet; the
child's father is still believed to be dropped somewhere in the debris.
Reaching Azra, who was reportedly born three weeks prematurely, was particularly difficult, rescuers told CNN. The baby's mother managed to make contact with rescuers and get the baby to them through a narrow passage.
Officials had to find a rescuer thin enough to fit into the crevice to get Azra. The rescuer claimed it was the first time he had ever pulled someone alive from earthquake rubble in 12 years of doing such work.
Rescuers were able to get oxygen to the girl's mother and grandmother until they were pulled to safety. "It was hard to rescue them" because of the tight space, rescue worker Tansu Bayram said. "It was so difficult."
The official death toll in the quake has climbed to 432 people, with another 1,352 people injured, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Relief Agency said. Rescuers throughout region struck continue to comb for survivors around the clock. Some 2,262 buildings in the region lie in ruins.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 55 buildings collapsed in Ercis on the north shore of Lake Van. The Turkish Red Crescent said about 25 apartment buildings and a student dormitory also collapsed in the town.
CNN Turk reporter Nevsin Mengu said many residents are not returning to their houses, to sleep on rooftops or in the streets. It was not clear whether their homes were uninhabitable or if they were just too frightened. Electricity and natural gas were turned off in most of the city. Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said officials had hoped to restore power in Van and Ercis shortly.
The crisis center says that 29 surrounding towns had sent help and medical helicopters were taking the injured for treatment in other provinces. Thirty-seven patients were taken to Ankara, Atalay said Monday.
Two tent hospitals have been set up in Ercis, and two cargo planes were dispatched from the capital carrying medical teams and aid.
Erdogan and Health Minister Recep Akdag arrived in the area over the weekend, according to the Ministry of Health's crisis center.
Turkey is "no stranger to having these seismic events," but Sunday's quake is considered major, CNN Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said.
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