When we arrived in Antakya near the Syrian border, we were greeted by a rather bleak scene.
We drove maybe 50 or 60 kilometers on this road from Adana airport.
Virtually every building here has been hit in some way. There are damaged buildings all around me.
Turkey-Syria earthquake – updates: trapped residents inaccessible in freezing weather
In the wreckage of an eight-story apartment building, a few volunteers attempt to use pickaxes and their bare hands to dig out the rubble.
In another building, they hear voices. Every once in a while they tell us to shut up so they can use their little drills – that’s all they have – to try to dig in.
They have already taken out at least four bodies this morning and they are now screaming that they heard people below.
A lot of people in this province feel like they’ve been forgotten, they haven’t gotten help, they still don’t get help.
We saw crowds of people looting one of the supermarkets saying they were hungry, they had nowhere to go, no home, no food and above all no help at the moment.
When we were at Adana airport there were a lot of staff – including a lot of volunteers – who traveled from all over the country to try and help in what is rapidly turning into Turkey’s worst natural disaster in nearly a century.
Many have relatives or friends they are still trying to reach in the multiple towns and villages affected.
I was with an Istanbul-based doctor earlier as she frantically tried to phone colleagues in Hatay, considered one of the worst affected areas and close to the Syrian border.
“We can’t reach them,” she said, “we’re really worried.”
Learn more:
Before and after: Images show the devastation of the earthquake
“Reminiscent of a war zone”, says a Syrian doctor
Adana airport is full of people who have traveled to help the rescue effort
It is believed that at least two hospitals collapsed in Hatay when the earthquakes rocked this region.
Worried people were glued to television and radio reports and watched in horror as the death toll rose hour by hour. Forty-five nations have already offered their assistance.
Turkey is going to need it to the last.
Reaching the affected people on the other side of the Syrian border is going to be extremely complicated.
Many residents along the Turkish border have already been displaced several times.
In a region so badly affected by war and poverty for more than a decade, this region is particularly vulnerable and unable to cope with a disaster of this magnitude.
