ANTAKYA: Turkey on Sunday said rescue efforts following last week’s devastating earthquake had ended in all but two provinces as visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100 million in fresh humanitarian aid.
The 7.8-magnitude tremor that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 has killed more than 44,000 people, with the likelihood of finding survivors two weeks on extremely remote.
No survivors have been found in at least 24 hours.
The head of Turkey’s disaster agency Yunus Sezer on Sunday said search and rescue efforts had been completed in all provinces apart from Hatay and Kahramanmaras, the earthquake’s epicentre.
Sezer said search and rescue efforts continued at around 40 buildings in the provinces on the 14th day but expected the number to fall by late Sunday. The agency head also said Turkey’s death toll had risen to 40,689. The total death toll including Syria is now 44,377. The winding-down of rescue operations came as Blinken arrived in Turkey to show solidarity with a NATO ally and announce a new aid package worth $100 million.
Washington’s top diplomat met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu at Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, through which the United States has shipped aid.
Blinken then accompanied Cavusoglu in a helicopter to view the damage wrought by the disaster in Hatay province.
The new aid “will be moving soon. Sadly, it’s less about search and rescue but long-term recovery. This is going to be a long-term effort”, he told reporters.
“It’s going to take a massive effort to rebuild but we’re committed to supporting that effort,” he added, saying the United States had now contributed $185 million in assistance to Turkey and Syria. The trip had been planned before the earthquake, the worst natural disaster to hit Turkey in its post-Ottoman history.
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