The last person to be brought out of the rubble of a devastated house alive was rescued on Thursday evening. Since then, only bodies have been found. Burial must be quick. The danger of disease now looms large and religious authorities have given leave for bodies to be buried without full services. They issued a ruling on Thursday that in the present circumstances, men and women could be buried together, bodies could be interred in one cloth instead of three and corpses that were bloated or smelling could be washed in sand if no water were available.
Relatives arrive in a constant stream and stand at the graves offering their own prayers.
Their eyes are red from days of waiting and days of weeping. A red truck carrying newly uncovered victims teeters up the narrow dusty path to the Erenler cemetery. Men in green surgical costumes, masked and gloved, jump down and begin unloading corpses. There are no traditional white shrouds. Most of the bodies are enclosed in white zip-up body bags.