B.C. woman shares grief, concerns upon return from Turkey quake zone | 24CA News
A British Columbia lady who misplaced practically a dozen relations within the devastating earthquake in Turkey has returned to Vancouver after a visit to her hometown, and stated the area stays desperately in want of assist.
Nural Sumbultepe misplaced 10 family members within the quake, together with six fast relations.
“Six very dear to my heart that I see all the time when I go home and that I communicate with almost on a weekly basis from Canada,” she stated.
“Who am I going to mourn today? Every day I think about one of them in detail.”
Sumbultepe returned to Canada from the town of Iskenderun, which was devastated by the catastrophe, on Wednesday.
While in Turkey, she toured the devastation, visited navy websites and supplied as a lot assist as she was capable of her household, and anybody else she may assist.
“I literally collapsed — my legs did not hold me — when I saw the destruction,” she stated, including that she was on the bottom for one more terrifying earthquake whereas within the nation.
“I had to visit a lot of graves, as you can imagine, and I supported my sister who lost very close immediate family members and my niece who needed help with her two kids … I visited a lot of what we call tent cities, where people were living in containers and tents.”
As the dying toll in Turkey and Syria surpasses 50,000, the monumental tragedy is turning into a rising humanitarian disaster. Calls for worldwide assist proceed amid allegations of negligence and corruption in opposition to each nation’s governments.
Sumbultepe stated the journey to Turkey left her with quite a few issues in regards to the scenario on the bottom.
Efforts to get assist like shelter and water to survivors has been gradual, she stated, and many individuals have been left with out vital fundamentals. The navy has been gradual to reply, and transparency is missing on the billions of {dollars} raised for reduction, she stated.
“I still don’t understand why people are still homeless, why they still don’t have shelter and clean water and tents,” she stated.
“What the world doesn’t know is some people who were rescued, they froze to death.”
Sumbultepe stated there’s rising anger in regards to the obvious failure of presidency to implement earthquake security codes applied after the lethal 1999 Istanbul earthquake.
In Iskenderun, there have been lethal constructing collapses in six neighbourhoods the place she stated building ought to by no means have been allowed within the first place.
The 15-storey constructing her sister-in-law lived and died in additionally seems to have been constructed too tall for its location, opposite to code.
With an election scheduled for this spring, she stated the federal government seems to be speeding to rebuild, with out consulting seismologists, l metropolis planners and native leaders, elevating issues a couple of repeat of the catastrophe sooner or later.
Read extra:
Turkey and Syria rocked by one other earthquake, killing at the very least 3 and injuring lots of
Sumbultepe stated she’s profoundly grateful for the monetary help her fellow British Columbians have supplied for these affected by the tragedy.
But she stated there’s far more Canada can do to assist.
“I’d really like to see Canada keep that promise … about rebuilding and repairing,” she stated.
“And I’d like to encourage the Canadian government to talk with the Turkish government about careful planning.”
Back in Vancouver, Sumbultepe stated she’s nonetheless struck with grief anytime she finds herself alone. But she’s already planning her subsequent journey, with hopes of heading again to help her household in a matter of weeks.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
