For the past three days she had lived and slept in a field on this coastal city's naval base, eating nothing but bread at every meal and squatting outside when she had to use the bathroom. The night before, one of the strongest aftershocks from the August 17, magnitude 7.4 quake rolled under her back, beneath the blanket she slept on in the grass. The rugged conditions were starting to get to the earthquake survivor. A young earthquake victim sleeps in a makeshift hammock. A week after the earthquake destroyed nearly every building in this coastal city, there is little hope of finding anyone else alive in the wreckage.
Relief organizations are finally able to concentrate on helping survivors.
All over Turkey, the 500,000 left homeless by the quake are in urgent need of shelter, portable showers, latrines and vaccines to ward off disease. Officials also have made appeals for medicines and clinics to help tend to Turkey's 33,000 injured. A walk through the city reveals just how severe the problems are. People in crowded fields sleep on blankets and under rugs held up with sticks to block the sun. Bags of trash litter the sidewalks, but there is no trash service here to pick them up.