Emergency teams are racing against time to rescue victims trapped in the rubble after 10 Turkish cities were struck by two massive earthquakes on Monday.
The death toll in Turkey and neighboring Syria has already topped 4,000, while more than 11,000 buildings have been damaged from the temblors, trapping many inside in freezing temperatures, Bloomberg reports.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is overwhelmed by the amount of logistical problems and all the aid it needs to assist the 13.4 million people living in the area affected by the disaster.
The twin earthquakes had magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6, striking Turkey’s southeast and causing widespread destruction in 10 cities as well as in neighboring Syria. Roads and airports were damaged, while crude oil flows to a key export terminal came to a halt.
Turkey said it deployed a total of 24,443 rescue workers, 10 ships and more than 50 airplanes to pull victims out of damaged buildings and evacuate some of the injured from the disaster zone.
Rescue teams from Romania, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and Lebanon have already been deployed in the quake zone, Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said, as part of a broad international effort to quickly respond to the crisis. Many other countries have also offered help.
The European Union has sent more than 1,150 rescue workers, along with some 70 dogs, in response to the quake. The teams come from 19 European countries, according to the EU Commission.
Oil prices were up on Tuesday partly due to a halt in exports from Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal on the Mediterranean.
The facility at Ceyhan serving Azeri oil will be shut on Tuesday and Wednesday, Tribeca Shipping, a port agent, said on Monday. It’s unclear if the rest of the terminal — including parts handling Iraqi flows — will also be shut for that period.
Turkey’s benchmark stock index fell as much as 3.8% in early trades, following a 1.4% decline on Monday. The drop was led by Turkish Airlines and Tupras refinery, while cement companies extended their rally into a second day.
Turkey’s emergency response agency Afad put the death count 3,381 early on Tuesday. In Syria, more than 1,000 were confirmed dead, according to the Associated Press.
Firefighters have been battling flames in a section of the Iskenderun port on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, damaging an area where there were a number of shipping containers, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.