They thought it couldn’t get more terrifying. They were wrong. Just when they thought it was all over, it wasn’t.
More than two weeks on, families were again running for their lives. Some had only just returned to their homes, or still clung to hope they could return.
But overnight that dramatically changed with another two significant earthquakes – one of them in the heart of one of the already worst-affected areas.
The Goncagul family moved into a tent just three days ago in Antakya, Hatay. Mehmet, Fatima and their four young children had been sleeping in their car since the first set of earthquakes hit just over two weeks ago.
They couldn’t leave the area until they’d try to locate their dead and missing relatives. We think we’ve misheard him when Mehmet tells us he’s lost about 80 relatives.
“Eight you mean?” I inquire. “No, EIGHTY,” he says, “More than 80. I’ve lost count now,” he says.
He and his immediate family of six are huddled round a fire which they’re feeding with broken up bits of furniture. Their furnishings, or what were once furnishings, are now only fit for firewood.
“I went back to the house this morning. Before the latest set of earthquakes, the home was liveable in. But now the roof has gone and there are big cracks throughout,” Mehmet explains. He swipes through pictures on his phone showing room after room of devastation.
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His wife Fatima tells us: ”Before we had some hope of returning to the home. But its gone now. We have no hope now.”
Antakya is changed beyond recognition. Guldenay Sonumut, our Turkish colleague, keeps pointing former landmarks and restaurants we used to visit on the many occasions we visited this region and this once historic and beautiful city.
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“Do you remember that’s where we used to sit in the outside garden,” she says, “And there, that was where you could enter the old market.”
None of it looks recognisable any more. There just seem streets and streets or rubble and piles that were once people’s lives and belongings.
And seismologists are warning there could still be more tremors and aftershocks to come for weeks, and potentially months ahead.
Alex Crawford was reporting with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Turkey producer Guldenay Sonumut
