Count your blessings folks, I do:-)
At Least 374 Dead in Turkey Quake
By HARMONIE TOROS
.c The Associated Press
KAYNASLI, Turkey (Nov. 14) - With time working against them, rescue workers battled bitter cold Sunday as they searched through concrete slabs and other debris in hopes of finding more survivors from Friday's devastating earthquake.
So far, 374 people are known to have died in the tremor, and another 3,000 are injured.
With the mercury plunging as low as 23 degrees overnight, the cold was also worsening the plight of those who lived through the disaster.
Local television reported that survivors were having difficulty sleeping even with three or four blankets. There were not enough emergency tents to go around, and many people slept outside.
'With the cold people give up more easily. They do not fight to stay alive,' said French Army Capt. Jean Marc Castagnet, working with his team in the hard-hit town of Kaynasli, where rescuers dug out at least 135 bodies.
Castagnet and his colleagues also came to provide support following the massive earthquake that hit a nearby region of Turkey on Aug. 17, leaving more than 17,000 dead. After that quake, the survivors were struggling with sweltering heat and dehydration.
The latest 7.2-magnitude quake hit this hilly region of northwestern Turkey just after nightfall Friday. The center was in Bolu province, an area just 45 miles east of the more populated coastal region worst hit by the August temblor.
With the chances of survival under piles of rubble decreasing with every passing hour, the official death toll was expected to rise.
Still, Turkish media seized on any signs of hope. The Milliyet newspaper ran a front-page picture of a man who was rescued after midnight along with two of his daughters, having spent over 30 hours under the debris of their home in the town of Duzce.
'At every site possible we are searching and listening. We are talking to people to see if they know the whereabouts of their relatives,' Israeli Col. Gilad Golan said in Duzce. He was speaking on Israel's army radio network.
The location of the quake zone - directly between Turkey's two major cities, Istanbul and Ankara - allowed many rescue workers to arrive quickly. Roads in the quake zone were crowded with trucks bringing in aid, including tents, blankets, food and water. Ambulances zig-zagged in traffic jams, sirens blaring, as they rushed the injured to hospitals.
A 48-year-old woman, Saziye Bulut, was pulled out alive from the rubble of a five-story apartment building in Duzce on Sunday, 41 hours after the quake, the Anatolia news agency reported. She was reported in stable condition and was the fifth survivor rescued from the same building.
Turkish authorities, who had been criticized for reacting too slowly to the previous quake, were working to respond more promptly this time around. Government ministers went quickly to the quake zone, and the military was also dispatched right away.
While some survivors were critical of the authorities, many Turks appeared more satisfied with the response this time. The Sabah newspaper praised authorities and rescue teams for moving quickly, running a story headlined 'The resurrection of the state.'
Eight aftershocks, the strongest with a magnitude of 3.9, rattled the quake zone overnight.
The Friday quake flattened hundreds of buildings. In Duzce, the farming town at the epicenter of the quake, the temblor tore out the center of a turn-of-the-century mosque, leaving only the walls standing.
'The destruction is severe,' said Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. 'I hope that the wounds will be healed. ... We are faced with a disaster.'
International rescue teams rushed to Turkey from Greece, the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Algeria.
The quake struck as Turkey prepared to host world leaders for a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The temblor rocked buildings in Istanbul, 90 miles to the west, where the officials are scheduled to convene, but Ecevit said the summit would not be canceled.
President Clinton was to arrive in Turkey Sunday night. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, arrived in Ankara on Saturday.
Friday's quake was a separate tremor, not an aftershock of the August quake, according to experts.
Seismologists warned that more strong quakes could hit the town of Akyazi, west of Bolu. The warning caused panic in Akyazi, where residents began erecting tents and building huts from wood in open areas, news reports said.
The warnings prompted Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan to hold an urgent meeting on Saturday. Authorities decided to move hospitals and schools into new two-story prefabricated houses, tear down poorly constructed buildings and set up a quake-warning system, the daily newspaper Hurriyet reported.
AP-NY-11-14-99 0713EST
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