Turkish quake survivors experiencing big freeze in cars, tents

Temperatures in the earthquake-hit Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius early on Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents - too scared or forbidden to return to their homes. Parents walked the streets of the city - near the epicenter of Monday's earthquake, which left more than 12,000 dead - carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.

"When we sit down, it's painful, and I'm worried about anyone trapped under the rubble," said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as she watched rescuers working late into the night. .

"Eventually we'll have to go into the tent, but I don't want to," she added. “I can't stand the winter, but I can't even think about going back to our apartment. “City authorities have banned thousands of residents from returning to apartment buildings that are considered at risk from aftershocks that are rocking the region every day.

Smoke from dozens of fires filled the night air around Halicis. Supermarkets and other businesses gave families wooden pallets to burn. Some people found refuge with neighbors or relatives. Some left the region. But many have nowhere to go. Gyms, mosques, schools and some shops opened at night. But beds are still expensive, and thousands of people spend nights in cars with the engines running to provide warmth.

"I have no choice," Suleyman Yanik said as he sat with one child playing with the steering wheel of his car and his wife and another child sleeping in the back seat. "The smell is terrible, but we can't go home," he said. Restaurant manager Burhan Cagdas said he had been sleeping in his car since Monday's earthquake because of his family's "psychological" resistance to returning home. He wasn't sure how long it would last. Many families complained about the government's progress in earthquake mitigation.

During a trip to the region on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan admitted there were "shortcomings" but insisted the scale of the disaster was too great for any government to handle. Poor families camped around the 6th-century Gaziantep Castle, badly damaged by the earthquake, said the authorities did nothing for them families built makeshift homes with tarps and wood that others threw away.

"They could have at least given us some tents," said Ahmet Huseyin. "Our children are freezing," added the 40-year-old father of five, whose nearby house was virtually destroyed by the 7.8-magnitude tremor. “We had to burn park benches and even some children's clothes. There was nothing else," he said.

Some shelters didn't even have the luxury of a tarp to cover the entrance. Emel Osman, a 14-year-old whose family fled Syria to Turkey seven years ago, said the authorities should have set up a tent "at least for the children". There is a threat that stones from the castle will fall into the park, where the families have taken refuge. But they say they have no choice because they don't have a car or spare shelter.