A month after quake, family that survived under the rubble looks to the
future
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[March 06, 2023]
By Can Sezer and Jonathan Spicer
NURDAGI, Turkey (Reuters) - Tremors still rattle Turkey's south one
month after devastating twin earthquakes, however Havva Arslan, mother
of three, finally feels safe in her small but sturdy container home.
Arslan, her husband and their three children survived for five days
trapped under the rubble of their five-storey apartment building. The
fact the whole family emerged alive makes theirs a rare survival story
in the town of Nurdagi, where most buildings either collapsed or are
marked for demolition.
It has been barely two weeks since the family was discharged from
hospital and the five of them are trying to pick up the strands of what
they call their previous life. They tentatively re-establish routines in
their makeshift new home behind a petrol station.
"We were a well-off family. We had two homes and a car. We were thankful
to God for all that. And we are thankful now, that all my kids are safe.
I have no fears now that my family is beside me," Havva said as she sat
beside a wooden picnic table after a family breakfast.
Havva and her husband, Hasan, lost 36 of their relatives in the quake
and the grief is raw. One of their surviving relatives, grandmother
Arslan, lives in a container next door with a broken foot.
Acquaintances drop by to offer condolences.
Hasan, an accountant, says he will soon be ready to get back to work.
"Clients have started calling again. The governor sent town accountants
a container, the guild will send a computer and printer. I'll then begin
where I left off," Hasan says.
He points at a dusty metal safe containing documents salvaged from his
collapsed office.
Both parents are happy that two of their children, one in the 4th grade
and one in the 8th, are able to get back to classes.
"Kids need school," Havva says, adding that authorities are setting up a
school in a nearby tent city with children at first getting back for two
days a week.
'ALL OF US ARE ALIVE'
Eldest daughter, Fatmagul, 19, has begun preparing for university
entrance exams, which she is due to take in a few months.
[to top of second column]
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Havva Arslan and her daughters Fatmagul,
19-year-old, and Zeynep, 14-year-old, sleep in the container home
where the family lives, next to a petrol station, after they were
all rescued from the rubble of their home in the aftermath of a
deadly earthquake in Nurdagi, Turkey, March 5, 2023. REUTERS/Susana
Vera
"One day I woke up, opened my eyes and saw her sitting by the table
studying. 'We have to start somewhere, mum', she said."
On the night the quake hit, the parents and the three children
rushed to hold each other when the violent shaking struck.
As walls collapsed around them, the floor beneath gave way and the
Arslan family fell one floor down, with the four floors above
crashing down around them seconds later.
They were trapped in a pitch-back space, with no food or water and
no idea of how much time was passing as the hours turned into days.
After a while the family, starting with the parents, began
hallucinating.
"I was hungry. I was seeing apples and oranges but couldn't hold
them. My mother was speaking on a phone that she didn't have,"
Fatmagul said.
In the end, a rescue team pushing through a crevice zeroed in on
their cries for help.
"'My name is Fatmagul Arslan', I shouted. 'We're five people here.
All of us are alive', I said."
And then the moment of rescue: "Light came in through, I heard a
sound and then saw the eyes of a man," Fatmagul said.
The death toll in Turkey from the earthquakes has risen to nearly
46,000 with about 6,000 people killed in neighbouring Syria.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
"I wanted her to study but only when she felt she could, so I
waited," Havva said.
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