Today, Explained - One earthquake, two recoveries

Episode Date: February 8, 2023

Turkey is digging itself out from the devastating earthquake that has killed thousands across the country. Recovery efforts have been more difficult in northwest Syria, where civil war means there’s no unified response to the crisis. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained   Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Today Explained. I'm Noelle King. A brother and sister were pulled out of a collapsed building in northwest Syria yesterday. The girl, who looks to be about six or seven, had reportedly said to a rescue worker, get me out of here, I'll do anything for you. And that rescue worker delivered. In fact, the girl's whole family survived. The death toll from that 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that hit Turkey and Syria has risen to 11,600. And that number is being updated every few hours. Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency, saying he believes Turkish people will exhibit patience.

But after all this, it's unclear how much patience they have. Meanwhile, in northwest Syria, there's little government to even speak of. Up next, two reporters join us from the region to tell us what they're seeing. This NFL season, get in on all the hard-hitting action with FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook. You can bet on anything from money lines to spreads and player props, or combine your bets in a same-game parlay for a shot at an even bigger payout. Plus, with super-simple live betting, lightning-fast bet settlement, and instant withdrawals, FanDuel makes betting on the NFL easier than ever before. So make the most of this football season and download FanDuel today.

19-plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Yes, my name is Piotr Zalewski and I'm the economist, Turkey correspondent. Where are you right now, Piotr? I'm on the outskirts of Antakya, which is a city of about 400,000 people in southern Turkey close to the Mediterranean coast. Piotr Zalewski sounded almost stunned by what he'd seen in Antakya. When we talked, it was Tuesday evening there, and he'd returned to the outskirts of that

city. I've just come out of the city center, where the situation is quite grim. I mean, it's quite grim on the outskirts as well. I don't have the official numbers or exact numbers, but I can tell you that it seems as if every other building in the city, or at least in the city center, has been completely destroyed. There are other buildings that are leaning to one side or another and look to be on the verge of collapsing, which is one reason why no one wants to go back into his or her house.

So people are camping out outdoors. There are tent cities sprouting up all over the local parks. Some people will be sleeping in their cars. But the devastation is quite extreme, and the rescue workers here are overwhelmed and overstretched. What's the weather like? It's not freezing, but it's getting quite cold. It's cloudy.

There's also a cloud of smoke over the city, and that's a cloud of smoke from Iskanderun, which is another town about an hour away from here. And there we were driving by and we saw a port that was being consumed by fire. And it's the smoke from that fire that's spreading over the neighboring mountains and over Antakya itself. But inside the city, the scenes are quite apocalyptic. People are being pulled from the rubble.

But by people, I unfortunately mean corpses mostly. There are some survivors, there are some miracles, but the situation for the most part is quite hopeless. So much so that you have bodies wrapped in blankets or rugs lining the main thoroughfare. Those are corpses waiting weighed, you know, waiting to be picked up by emergency crews and there are also wounded people in the streets waiting for ambulances. As you can hear probably in the background there are

quite a few ambulances here, military helicopters as well. President Erdogan, the Turkish president, declared a state of emergency in the 10 provinces most affected by the earthquake. So obviously military is starting to pour in. It's been now almost two days, I guess, and 36 hours or so since the quake. And so any hope of finding survivors is quickly diminishing, also because there simply isn't enough equipment and enough manpower to cope with the scale of the disaster. I imagine people are in shock.

What are people saying to you? What are they telling you? Well, you know, I mean, you have people who are obviously undergoing severe anguish. Everyone has a relative, seems to have a relative they can't get a hold of. Social media in Turkey is full of tweets and the like by people in Antakya, in places like Antakya, who are trapped in the rubble and asking for help. And there's a sense of, you know, frustration, exasperation, because folks are realizing that the rescue workers simply will not get to more than a fraction of the people who are trapped under the rubble.

Can you tell me why was this earthquake so deadly? This is a part of the world that is frequently hit by earthquakes. And I might imagine that there would be preparations for this kind of thing. But you're saying in Antakya, it looks to you like every second building has collapsed. What's going on, Pyotr? One reason is obviously the fact that Antakya sits atop a fault line that stretches for hundreds of kilometers to the east. And the devastation along that fault line, along that 500 kilometer belt is extreme and it's also extreme south of that belt in northern Syria and there obviously the humanitarian situation is even more dramatic because access for rescue workers is much more restricted. So the scale of these earthquakes also explains um the extent of the damage um at least uh somewhat um but what also explains the

extent of the damage is the um quantity of the housing here a lot of the houses that have collapsed probably you know vast majority of houses that were built in the 80s and 90s and that were built in plain you know disregard building codes that were not adequately earthquake proofed and you know the erdogan government has actually done sort of a half decent job of earthquake proofing houses across turkey they claim to have renewed some 3 million, more than 3 million housing units. But that's only a fraction of the total housing stock. And what has made things worse, actually,

is a decision by this government to offer what's called a building amnesty to people who are developers who built illegally over the past few years. And clearly this government will have to answer for these building amnesties. But there's no shortage of people who will be or ought to be taken into account. Starting from previous governments who also passed building amnesties to generations of developers who built on the cheap and who built illegally. This is one of those events that has obviously drawn the attention of much of the

world. What is the international response? Who is helping? Who's really standing out at this time? I mean, I've seen, you know, television footage of rescue teams arriving from Japan, for example. I understand help is pouring in from a number of countries. I haven't seen any international foreign rescue teams in Antakya. The problem is that a lot of locals in Antakya haven't seen Turkish teams either.

And so the effort is, at least as far as they see it, inadequate. And the resources that the state here has at its disposal are seen to be inadequate as well. Just to give you an idea of some of the scenes unfolding here, I saw an elderly woman pleading with some soldiers to clear the rubble of her son's house. She said she knew that her son was inside, but he couldn't be heard from. And so the soldiers explained to her that they have to make difficult choices, they have to prioritize. So the heavy equipment that they have, the diggers, the cranes, they only use in those areas, those buildings where there's hope of finding survivors

and they said that across the street was another building where they could hear the voices of people trapped under the rubble and they explained to her that her son was probably dead they tried to help by removing the rubble with their hands, but this was a two or perhaps three-story house. There's only so much they could do. The bulk of the rescue effort has been done by locals and by volunteers. And people also flying in and driving in from other parts of the country. The outpouring of sympathy and support by normal Turks has been quite extraordinary as well.

This earthquake is a tragedy in which untold numbers of lives will be lost. On top of that, the economy will be hit hard. There is almost no way around that. And then on top of that, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing an election in May. Historically in Turkey, when there is an event of this nature,

and you point to the quake in 1999, have people tended to blame the government and to vote out the person in charge? Well, people won't blame the government for the earthquake. They will blame the government for the inadequate response. And that was certainly the case in the late 90s and 99, when the earthquake struck near Istanbul. People felt at the time, and rightly so, that the earthquake response was wholly botched. And a common theme during that 99 earthquake was, you know, where is the state? Turks have been taught for decades that, you know, their state, the land was there to protect them. They have been taught to admire the power of the state.

And in 1999, the state was nowhere to be seen. Now, today, the situation has changed. And, you know, this government has actually taken some steps to improve the emergency response. But it seems to be that the consensus is that the government has not done enough. And it probably will have to shoulder a part of the blame and that's going to hurt Erdogan's chances of re-election and it's obviously going to make it much harder for the ruling party to win come May. So there's almost certain to be a backlash. How big that backlash ends up being obviously depends on the ongoing rescue effort

and perhaps it's too early to talk about reconstruction, but at least prospects for reconstruction. The focus right now is on the search and rescue effort and clearing the rubble, looking for survivors. And even 36 hours after the quake, there are people being pulled out alive. As far as housing people who have been rendered homeless by this, a lot of folks will depend on friends and relatives in other parts of the country. Social networks in Turkey are remarkably strong and resilient.

So people from places like Antakya will be able, or at least many of them will be able to find shelter with friends or family elsewhere. Many of the hotels here seem to have opened their doors to people displaced by the quake. I've seen libraries converted into temporary shelters, mosques and schools. And there are obviously tent cities, you know, tents sprouting up all over the countryside here. From Antakya, where Piotr is, a video is going around of rescue workers giving a stuck but still smiling little boy sips of water from a bottle cap. The boy is reportedly Syrian, and there are a lot of Syrians in Turkey, of course, as a result of that country's civil war. Coming up next, what this quake did in and to Syria. digital photo frame by Wirecutter. Aura frames make it easy to share unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone

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That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com, promo code EXPLAINED. This deal is exclusive to listeners and available just in time for the holidays. Terms and conditions do apply. It's Today Explained. We're back. Earlier this week in Idlib, northwest Syria, a crowd gathered and cheered as an entire family was pulled from a house alive. Three little kids, two girls and a boy were extracted first. The kids looked really stunned, but the rescue workers were loud and jubilant, and later their parents were removed on stretchers to more very loud cheering. Sarah Daddouche is a Washington Post correspondent based in Beirut, Lebanon. That's where we reached her.

Sarah is also Syrian, and she told us that northwest Syria, where that family was rescued, is unfortunately in much worse shape than even Turkey. So the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria also struck both government-held parts of Syria and rebel-controlled areas in the northwest. It left destruction in its path, but the Syrians, both in government-held areas and in the northwest, especially in the northwest,

suffer from already compounding crises Syrians, both in government-held areas and in the Northwest, especially in the Northwest, suffer from already compounding crises and a lack of funds and abilities to respond to such an emergency. So we're seeing people hit in North and Central Syria. What is life like for Syrians who are living in the Northwest, the rebel-held Northwest? So the rebel-held northwest has really kind of been battered by bombardment, battles, brutal humanitarian conditions with no end in sight. There's not enough medical facilities and not enough doctors. There hasn't been for years. Bombardment by the Syrian government's forces and their Russian allies has kind of pancaked a lot of medical centers and a lot of buildings. It's really, really affected the structural integrity of buildings.

All of this was made worse by the earthquake. How are people living in those areas? You know, people talk about refugee camps. What does that look like? Are people in buildings? Are they in tents? How might we, you know, envision this area? So out of the maybe 4.5 million people living in the northwest in that opposition

held enclave, the UN estimates about 3 million people were displaced from elsewhere in Syria. Many had been displaced several times over. Some displaced people here have been uprooted several times and starting over has become routine. And many say they need international support now if they're to cope with the dire conditions they live in. For years, people have been living in tents, you know, among olive groves and on hard, very hard terrain, exposed to the elements, exposed to the rain and snow and cold. And a lot of the people who don't live in tents

are forced to live in already damaged infrastructure. So that northwest corner was really not ready for a disaster like this. We spoke to a reporter in Turkey earlier in the show, and we could hear ambulances behind him. You know, it was evident, even though he said Turks do not have everything they need, they do have some of the things they need. What does the recovery look like? What is it expected to look like in northwest Syria? If people are already kind of living at a bare minimum, who is helping? Who is available to help? I think the overwhelming sense in the northwest of Syria right now is that no one cares about northwest Syria. You know, that's the impression that residents have because there isn't really a state that can govern. There is a pseudo state there,

but not one that has funds. It doesn't have enough ambulances. It doesn't have the ability to dispatch firefighters or rescue workers. The rescue workers that exist there are the Syrian civil defense or what people call the white helmets. And they're made up of members and volunteers.

It's an aid group that operates in areas outside of government control. Our teams responded to all the sites and the buildings. And still now, many families now are under the rubble. Our team's trying to save them. But it's a very difficult task for us we need help we need the international community to do something to help us to support us the weight of this has relied on them they're the ones who have been pulling bodies and pulling people and trying to rescue everyone this group has support from the uk government and other areas, but it has been saying it's not enough for years.

Bombardment happened as recently as this past month. The war has not ended in this area, which needs food, water, shelter, medical assistance on a regular basis, let alone after a disaster. Presumably, Sarah, the Syrian government cannot do anything in this region because it does not have any control in this region? I don't think the Syrian government would want to do anything. West Aleppo, neighbors Idlib province, the last major areas held by rebels. They and vast numbers of civilians are cornered there by President Bashar al-Assad's forces and their allies. The reason so many people have been displaced to that area, to the northwest, is because the Syrian government,

whenever it recaptured areas, it filled up these green buses with rebel fighters and everyone that they deemed a traitor, which at the time would be pretty much anyone who was left in those rebel-held areas before being taken. So they just piled them onto buses and sent them to the northwest. It's supposed to be abandoned. This is on purpose from the Syrian government. So the Syrian government also doesn't really have enough means to deal with the, not just the crisis, but its normal economic woes as it is. What are the options then for the people living in this area?

What can they do? Can they go elsewhere, I guess, is the question. No, the people living there can't go elsewhere. I think many have been trying for a long time. People with special permissions, sometimes people who work in specific organizations, are able to move into the south of Turkey where a lot of Syrian refugees live. But mostly these IDPs, these internally displaced peoples, don't really have a place to go. So they're just at this point just trying to find a place to sleep. Some of those who did manage to escape unharmed are now braving the cold, living on the streets of Aleppo. They're afraid to go home.

You saw how a whole building just falls. It is terrifying. It's not as if mortars hit here or there. Here you walk in the streets. Ambulances are everywhere. Buildings are falling. People are walking in the streets. There are bodies. Is aid on its way there to northwest Syria? Can aid get there? I mean, if this is an area where you say there's, you know, the prospect of violence in a normal time, what is it like trying to get help into northwest Syria? Getting help into northwest Syria is very difficult. Everything that goes in has to be

approved. There's a border crossing that the government allows for humanitarian aid to be sent in through. Russia threatens to veto the renewal of this cross-border aid every six months. And now we're seeing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs the renewal of this cross-border aid every six months. And now we're seeing the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs saying that damage rose and other devastation from the earthquake has forced the United Nations to stop deliveries from Turkey into northwest Syria, which means millions of people are going to face dire conditions

because roads are broken, Others are inaccessible. There are logistical issues that the UN says it's facing right now. It honestly seems for people in northwest Syria like this is this is a plague. These people cannot win. They're already displaced from their homes. Many have lost people because of the war. They don't have any place to go. And then on top of that, this devastating earthquake.

Yeah, it feels as if this area just keeps going back in time, I think, for its residents. You know, they lost electricity because of the war. Internet is not as readily available because they've been cut off. Water, as end of last year, we started seeing all of these cases of cholera that actually trickled into Lebanon because of contaminated water and unsanitary practices. Shelter was scant and now even more so. So it just feels like they're being pulled further and further back into a worse time. What do you think that the next few days and weeks will look like in northwest Syria? I think the effort to rescue people will not abate, not even for a few days, I think longer, because after the rescue effort takes on a more grim tone,

and then it just becomes extraction efforts of all the different bodies. If the estimates are right, and if they think that there might be thousands of bodies under the rubble, then this could just be a very, very tiring and exhausting, traumatic time for a place that's already been traumatized many, many, many times over. There's just a constant plea for any kind of support, so maybe something will come out of that. That was Sarah Doudouche with The Washington Post in Beirut. We were also joined by Piotr Zalewski from The Economist on the ground in Antakya in southern Turkey. If you'd like to know how to best help Turkey and Syria, take a visit to Vox.com.

My colleague Kelsey Piper has written The Challenge of Disaster Relief, an insightful article about what helps in these situations and what does not. Today's episode was produced by Avishai Artsy and edited by Matthew Collette. It was fact-checked by Laura Bullard and engineered by Paul Robert Mouncey. I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained.