Some 200,000 quake survivors, their homes destroyed or damaged, were drenched with heavy rains for a second night as they camped out across northwestern Turkey. Tent cities now dot the landscape, and the government continues to appeal for blankets, bulldozers, and building materials. The heavy rains have hindered recovery operations and contributed to flooding as part of the Turkish coastline sank into the sea. Psychological aftershocks emerge Turkish authorities have mustered a group of mental health experts to tend to survivors, many of whom are have suffered serious psychological trauma. Their task will be a difficult one in a country where so many have lost so much.
Psychologists say thousands are suffering from post-traumatic stress.
Doctors report cases of children who refuse to eat or who wake up with nightmares. In Golcuk, a despondent man threw his furniture out of a shattered apartment in a fit of rage and desperation. For many survivors, the mounting devastation has become unbearable At the Israeli field hospital in Adapazari, doctors have had to deal with a handful of attempted suicides, and dozens of disoriented children who have lost brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. Paul Benedek, an Israeli military doctor. And many survivors were simply angry and unforgiving, their ire directed at the government.