Red Cross Blogs

Red Cross appeal for Turkey quake survivors

By Sarah Oughton
November 3, 2011 at 10:18 am

What is the situation following the earthquake in Turkey?

So far, 601 people are confirmed dead and more than 4,100 are injured.

The Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Agency reports the following damage to buildings:

• 2,309 collapsed
• 11,847 severely damaged
• 17,923 moderately damaged.

Search and rescue operations instigated by the government have been completed in 67 zones and will continue in four zones.

What are the priority needs?

The weather conditions are becoming worse with current temperatures around 6 degrees Celsius in daytime and -4 degrees Celsius at night.

Homeless survivors urgently need blankets, sleeping bags, winter tents, heaters, bottled water and food.

What is the Turkish Red Crescent doing?

Following the tragic news of the earthquake in Van on 23 October, the Turkish Red Crescent immediately alerted all its emergency response units and established crisis management centres in several regions. So far, it has:

• established four tent camps
• begun establishing two camps of pre-fabricated houses
• distributed 1,968 prefabricated houses to 48 villages located in higher altitude and colder areas
• assigned 18 psychologists and social service specialists to provide support for people who lost their relatives and for survivors experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

It is also distributing hot meals three times a day to the affected population.

The Turkish Red Crescent is a well trained and equipped organisation but the huge impact of this earthquake means international assistance is also needed.

How is the British Red Cross helping?

On 26 October, the British Red Cross launched an appeal to support the Turkish Red Crescent.

And around the world, there has been a global outpouring of support as Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies are sending cash and relief goods to support the emergency operation. So far this includes:

• 3,000 shelter tool kits from the Japanese Red Cross
• 3,600 sleeping bags from the Netherlands Red Cross
• 1,300 heaters from the Swiss and German Red Cross
• 1,300 winter tents from the Netherlands and Belgian Red Cross
• 3,000 tents from the Canadian, Swiss, German and Finnish Red Cross
• almost 60,000 blankets from the German, Norwegian, Canadian, Japanese and Swiss Red Cross.

Why do we need your help?

The Turkish government, Turkish Red Crescent and other organisations are racing against time to get sufficient quantities of aid to survivors living in freezing mountainous conditions.

The government has instructed its construction agency to build houses for the affected population in the shortest possible time. For temporary shelter purposes, containers are being manufactured and dispatched to the areas affected by the earthquake.

The Ministry of Health is continuing public health assessments in the tent camps. There are many cases of diarrhoea and people are being warned to only drink bottled water.

The earthquake killed many livestock, which provide the main economy in the affected rural areas. Medium and small businesses, farmers and livestock breeders will need support to resume their livelihoods.

The Turkish Red Crescent is working to identify 50,000 of the most vulnerable people affected by the quake – such as the elderly, disabled people, children and single-parent households – and will help them over the next nine months.

More funds are desperately needed to support this huge operation, please donate to our appeal today.

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Tags: disaster, emergency aid, emergency response, Turkey, Turkey Earthquake Appeal, Turkish Red Crescent

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 at 10:18 am and is filed under Emergencies, International, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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