Turkey’s Antakya Lies in Ruins After Devastating Quake
The massive earthquake and its aftershocks completely wiped out many neighborhoods, leaving behind heaps of rubble and twisted metal, and shattered lives
Antakya, Turkey is one of the cities that was hardest hit by the deadly earthquake that struck on February 6. Three weeks after that earthquake devastated southern Turkey, almost daily the country is rattled by a temblor, even as city workers try to clear out millions of tons of debris.
The ancient city that was home to 400,000 people is now almost entirely deserted.
In total, more than 118,000 buildings in Turkey were destroyed or severely damaged by the earthquake.
“More than 50% of Antakya has been destroyed and this is the place with the most deaths in Hatay Province,” according to the city’s mayor, Lütfü Savas. More than 44,500 people were in killed in Turkey, with at least 14,000 people dead in Hatay Province alone. More than 3,000 buildings were destroyed and 50,000 were damaged in the province.
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The massive earthquake and its aftershocks completely wiped out many neighborhoods, leaving behind heaps of rubble and twisted metal, and shattered lives.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Adiyaman in the southeast of the country, an area hit hard by the deadly earthquake, where he asked for forgiveness over rescue delays.
“Due to the devastating effect of the tremors and the bad weather, we were not able to work the way we wanted in Adiyaman for the first few days. I apologize for this,” Erdogan said.
The country still is dealing with tremors and aftershocks.
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey on Monday, killing one person and wounding dozens of others while causing some damaged buildings to collapse, the government’s disaster agency said.
