Yet another devastating earthquake has hit Turkey, my late father's country. The BBC reported 138 confirmed dead a half hour ago as of 9:00 p.m., New York time (12:30 a.m. London time, 4:30 a.m. Istanbul time). The 7.2 earthquake struck the province of Van, near the Iranian border. Turkish newspapers are reporting that up to 1,000 could very well be dead when the final numbers are reported, which could take weeks to resolve.
A similar earthquake struck the province of Van in 1976, and that disaster killed over 5,000 people. An earthquake in the city of Erzincan, due north of Van, in 1963 has one of the ten worst casualties total on record (internationally).
The Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" is reporting that up to 3,000 to 4,000 buildings in the area collapsed. The same publication quoted Bekir Kaya, the mayor of Van (the city), as saying that it was hard to get in touch with anyone to assist with the devastation due to the devastation of the city's telecomnunications infastructure.
The earthquake occured at 1:41 p.m. in the afternoon, local time (Turkey has one time zone). Ercis, a city that is 55 miles away from Van, reportedly has the highest casualty totals.
As evening fell on Van and Ercis, rescue workers were using campfires to work whatever light they could to potentially pull victims out of the massive rubble.
The Turkish Red Crescent, (http://www.kizilay.org.tr/english) the country's equivalent of the Red Cross, is also working with the relief effort.
NOTE: Deprem is the Turkish word for earthquake.
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