130+ hours after Turkey, Syria earthquake, rescues continue. How ...

Six days after an enormous earthquake struck a border region of Turkey and Syria, rescue crews continue to find survivors.

Several dramatic rescues occurred Saturday, some broadcast on Turkish television. A family of five were pulled from debris in the hard-hit town of Nurdagi, in the Gaziantep province in the southern part of country, 4 miles from where the 7.8 magnitude quake hit early Monday last week.

Later in the day, a family of three – parents and their 12-year-old child – were saved to the north in central Kahramanmaras. That rescue took place 133 hours after the quake hit.

On Sunday, a young girl was pulled from the rubble "in the 150th hour" in Hatay, Turkey, the country's health minister said on Twitter.

While these successful rescues offer a glimmer of hope amid dire conditions, experts have warned that chances of survival for those trapped in earthquake rubble decreases significantly as more time passes. Below-freezing temperatures across the region has further reduced the odds of finding survivors.

Turkey, Syria earthquake left devastation

In addition to the climbing death toll, tens of thousands of injuries were reported and millions have been left homeless.

"Apartment buildings houses have been flattened. People are homeless in freezing temperatures with nowhere else to stay," Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA, said in a video posted on Twitter Friday.

Benoît also added that more relief is needed in northwest Syria. "We're concerned that there's really been only one access point to bring emergency relief supplies (from Turkey into northwest Syria)," she said.

According to the United Nations, the first earthquake-related aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday. The region has already suffered greatly from the ongoing civil war – complicating earthquake relief efforts. Many areas of Syria have reportedly been isolated from receiving relief this week.

Here's what you need to know about the urgency of rescue efforts following a disaster like an earthquake and the chances of survival for people who remain trapped.

Aerial view of earthquake damage:Aerial images show scale of Turkey's devastation

How long do rescuers usually have to find survivors after an earthquake or disaster?

After a disaster like an earthquake, most rescues occur in the first 24 hours. Survival rates drop significantly after that – especially for individuals who have been severely injured.

Chances of survival for people trapped in buildings after earthquakes and/or tsunamis "decreases dramatically after 5 days and is null after 9 days," according to a 2017 study from researchers at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. However, the researchers noted there have been cases where people have survived longer.

"The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%," Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England, told CBS News.

How long can people survive after a disaster?

The amount of time people are able to survive after an earthquake varies significantly. For a person who is trapped under rubble following a quake, survival depends largely on their injuries, where and how they are trapped, their age, preexisting health, weather conditions and other factors.

Generally speaking, people trapped in the rubble of an earthquake can only survive about a week, experts say.

“Typically, it is rare to find survivors after the fifth to seventh days, and most search and rescue teams will consider stopping by then,″ Dr. Jarone Lee, an emergency and disaster medicine expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, told The Associated Press.

“There are many stories of people surviving well past the seven-day mark," Lee added. "Unfortunately, these are usually rare and extraordinary cases.”

What's the longest someone has survived after a disaster?

Again, it is rare to find survivors who have been trapped in earthquake rubble after more than a week, but there are some extraordinary cases.

After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck the northeastern coast of Japan, for example, a teenager and his 80-year-old grandmother were found alive after nine days trapped in their flattened home. In 2010, a 16-year-old Haitian girl was rescued from earthquake rubble after 15 days in Port-Au-Prince.

Security concerns, 'extreme fatigue' impacting rescue efforts

Freezing temperatures and "extreme fatigue" are affecting rescue workers, Belit Tasdemir, the AKUT Search and Rescue Association's U.N. liaison officer told CNN.

But some international relief efforts have also cited security concerns in southern Turkey because of clashes between local groups and looting.

As a result, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief stopped its rescue and relief work in the Hatay region and “will resume their work as soon as (Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, AFAD) deems the situation to be safe,” the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief said Saturday, according to CNN.

The Austrian Armed Forces also halted its rescue efforts because of "increasing aggression between factions in Turkey," Lt. Colonel Pierre Kugelweis of the Austrian Armed Forces told the BBC. "The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk."

Contributing: Grace Hauck, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

Turkey earthquake updates: Desperation as rescue efforts continue

Desperation and loss were growing Tuesday as frantic rescue workers continue their increasingly futile efforts to recover survivors trapped by the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the death toll in Turkey from last week’s earthquake increased to 35,418; Syrian officials have said at least 5,800 have died there.

Rescue worker Salam Aldeen spent a week digging through the rubble in Antakya, Turkey, about 40 miles south of the coastal city of Iskenderun in a region of about 500,000 people.

Speaking with USA TODAY from a car leaving the city after a week of rescues, Aldeen said international aid groups are helping desperate Turkish rescue teams working around the clock.

"I have never seen so much death and so many dead bodies in my entire life," he said, crying as he spoke. "The conditions are like in an Armageddon movie; it’s unbelievable. The whole city smells of dead people."

He said he helped free four people, including a boy found alive Monday, and recovered 35 bodies.

In a video he shared, red-helmeted fire department workers carefully clear rubble from around the boy, one worker cradling his hand between the metal reinforcing bars embedded in the concrete surrounding him.

Aldeen, the founder of Team Humanity, is a veteran aid and rescue worker who has operated in Greece, Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan. The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes struck nine hours apart in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6.

HOW TO HELP:Relief efforts ongoing after deadliest earthquake in years

New developments:

The impact area of the earthquakes that hit southern Turkey and Syria on Monday was equivalent to about twice the entire area of neighboring Lebanon – which covers about 4,000 square miles, according to Lebanese geologist Tony Nemer.

King Charles met with members of the Syrian and Turkish communities in London, a show of support as they packed aid boxes bound for the earthquake region.

Turkish authorities said more than 150,000 survivors have been moved to shelters outside the affected provinces.

100 YEARS OF EARTHQUAKES:Turkey, Syria disaster could be among this century's worst

Remains of infants, children add to rescue workers' pain

Aldeen recounted finding a dead man trapped beneath rubble, his body cradling a blanket-swaddled infant who also died. In another instance, he said, a woman escaped out a door when a collapse began but lost her husband and two children.

"Her husband, he was holding each child in a hand. When I found them, when I saw the first body, I was begging that it was not them, that I would find them alive," Aldeen said, describing how he clambered through the rubble. "He died while he was still holding his children, a child in each hand."

Aldeen said he and his friends worked nearly 24 hours straight to extricate the bodies, and then he built a fire to keep warm. He and his team lived on crackers and bread for a week, he said, taking occasional naps in their rental car.

"I was watching the bodies in front of me by the fire and I just started crying," he said. "There are bodies everywhere you walk. And they're just on the street, bodies."

TURKEY ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS:Building contractors probed after thousands of buildings toppled

UN: Nearly 9 million Syrians affected by deadly earthquake

Nearly nine million people in Syria have been affected by last week's deadly earthquake, according to the United Nations.

As the organization launched a funding appeal on Tuesday, it said humanitarian agencies will need almost $400 million to respond to "the most pressing humanitarian needs" over the next three months.

"This is a crisis of colossal proportions, one which will be a true litmus test for global generosity, solidarity and diplomacy," said Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, after visiting Syria and Turkey.

The funding will be needed to provide shelter, health care, food, water, sanitation, education, nutrition and protection services, the UN said. It also added that funds will be used to repair basic services such as lighting, water and sanitation, agriculture and education as well as create new supply chains.

The UN also hopes the funds will create jobs for residents who want to help move debris.

Griffiths also tweeted Tuesday that 11 UN trucks have just gone through the newly opened Syria-Turkey border crossing of Bab al-Salam. The organization said the vehicles are carrying blankets, gas cans and mattresses.

The UN also said 58 trucks crossed from Turkey to northwest Syria through the Bab al Hawa crossing point in the last five days carrying aid ranging from food and tents to cholera testing kits.

Rescuers still hear voices underneath the rubble

More than a week later, search teams say they are still hearing voices from under the rubble, offering some hope that more earthquake victims may be alive.

Several people were pulled from the debris in Southern Turkey Tuesday, CNN reported.

Among those rescued was a 35-year-old woman who was believed to have been buried for more than 200 hours in the Kahramanmaraş region, citing state broadcaster TRT Haber. It is also believed that the woman's husband was also pulled from the rubble, the networks reported.

Also two brothers, a 21-year-old and a 17-year-old, were pulled from collapsed buildings on Tuesday, the Turkish state broadcaster said.

And in the city of Adıyaman, workers pulled an 18-year-old boy and a man alive from the rubble, while Ukraine’s rescue team rescued pulled a woman in the southern province of Hatay, according to CNN's Turkish affiliate.

More than 8,000 people have been rescued alive from rubble in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, Al Jazeera reported.

Geologist warns that Turkey could see another quake soon

Tony Nemer, a geologist at Beirut American University in the Lebanese capital, told Anadolu news agency that the fault line that broke in Turkey is more than 200 miles long. But Nemer said that only part of the East Anatolian fault line was broken in the recent earthquake. Almost half the fault line saw no activity, he said.

"Now authorities in Turkey need to pay attention to the ... the eastern part of the fault line," Nemers said. "It’s unpredictable when there will be activity in this part. It may be right now, in a short time, or in a few years."

MIRACLE RESCUES:Some survived a week under rubble; Assad to allow more aid into rebel land; death toll surpasses 36,000: Updates

Turkey, Syria earthquake updates: Dramatic rescues of 10-day-old ...

A series of dramatic rescues Friday brought rare moments of relief amid the devastation left by the catastrophic 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, killing more than 23,000.

Meanwhile, the death toll continued to rise as Turkey’s disaster management agency said Friday more than 19,300 people had been confirmed dead with more than 77,000 injured. More than 3,300 have been confirmed dead in Syria.

Rescuers searched mountains of rubble for a fifth day as hopes of finding survivors faded. Experts say people trapped under rubble can live for a week or more, but freezing temperatures dim the chances.

Still, emergency crews Friday rescued several people trapped under crushed buildings for nearly 100 hours or more.

Adnan Muhammed Korkut, 17, was pulled from a basement in western Turkey’s Gaziantep Province. While trapped for 94 hours, Korkut was forced to drink his own urine to survive. Relatives wept as he was rescued, and he embraced his mother and others as he was taken to an ambulance.

In Adıyaman, a city in southeastern Turkey, a 4-year-old was given a jelly bean to calm him as he was rescued from the remnants his home 105 hours after the earthquake struck. Six people in a high-rise in the coastal city of Iskenderun were rescued after crews identified nine people trapped in the debris. And in hard-hit Kahramanmaras, an emergency worker played a pop song to distract to teenage sisters as they were rescued.

While touring Adıyaman on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said search-and-rescue efforts would continue until no one is left trapped under the rubble. He also renewed promises to rebuild buildings within a year and said the government would subsidize people's rents for one year.

PREVIOUS UPDATES:Turkey evacuates thousands; UN aid reaches Syria

Developments:

►The bodies of about 720 Syrians who died in Turkey were brought home for burial through a border crossing, Mazen Alloush, an official on the Syrian side of the border, said Friday.

►The United Nation's World Food Program announced Friday it has appealed for $77 million to provide food rations and hot meals for 874,000 people affected by the deadly earthquake in Syria and Turkey.

►State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed Thursday the deaths of three American citizens in the earthquake. Price could not say if the Americans were killed in Turkey or Syria.

►The U.S. pledged to provide $85 million in initial aid. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said Thursday it would lift sanctions on Syria for six months to allow aid to reach the war-torn nation.

►As of Thursday afternoon, 95 countries have offered help, and 6,479 rescuers from 56 countries are working in areas affected by the earthquake, Turkey's foreign ministry said.

HOW TO HELP:Relief efforts ongoing after deadliest earthquake in years

10-day-old baby rescued in Turkey

Yağız Ulaş and his mother were rescued 90 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria.

He was 10 days old at the time of his rescue — 90 hours after the quake, according to the mayor of Istanbul.

— Marina Pitofsky

More details:10-day-old baby boy, mother rescued from rubble

Three pulled from rubble alive in Syria

Paramedics successfully extracted three family members from the ruins of a building in coastal Jablah, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

A 60-year-old mother and her two adult children were rushed away in ambulances late Friday, five days after the earthquake.

Chances of finding survivors are narrowing, although experts say people can live for a week or more. The rescues Friday provided reasons for joy amid the misery gripping the region. Cemeteries and morgues were overwhelmed as the death toll continued to climb.

Death on an unimaginable scale

With morgues and cemeteries overwhelmed, bodies were wrapped in blankets and tarps along city streets as Turkey grappled with a death toll of unimaginable scale.

A sports hall in the hard-hit city of Kahramanmaras was turned into a makeshift morgue where family members gathered to identify the bodies of loved ones. One man wept over a black body bag.

"I’m 70 years old," he cried, "God should have taken me, not my son."

DEATH TOLL RISES:Some areas will be 'uninhabitable for years'

Syrian president accuses Western countries of politicizing crisis

Syrian President Bashar Assad accused Western countries of politicizing the crisis in the country, during his first public appearance Friday in a disaster area since the earthquake.

"The West has no humanitarianism, therefore politicizing the situation in Syria is something they would naturally do," Assad said during a trip to visit survivors in Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city.

Aleppo was among the worst-hit Syrian cities, and had already suffered damage from years of heavy bombardment during the country's civil war.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government announced Friday it will allow earthquake aid to all parts of the country, including areas held by insurgent groups in the northwest.

The first U.N. aid trucks reached northwestern Syria, a spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press on Friday. The delay underscored the difficulties getting help to the region. The U.N. drew criticism from local crews for not working harder to deliver aid more quickly.

Winter weather and damage to roads and airports also have hampered aid to both Turkey and Syria.

TURKEY EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE:Photos capture devastating aftermath

Millions of Syrians left homeless

As many as 5.3 million people may have been left homeless in Syria as authorities in both countries rush to distribute hot meals, tents and blankets, struggling to reach many people in need amid freezing temperatures, the U.N. refugee agency said.

The destruction of homes in Syria exacerbates displacement in the country after 6.8 million people had already been displaced after war broke out in 2011, driving Syrians from their homes.

Building codes partially blamed for devastation

Experts are pointing to poor construction and ignored building codes for exacerbating the devastation.

Turkey has for years not enforced modern construction codes, including earthquake-engineering standards, amid real estate booms in earthquake-prone areas, engineers have said. They say the problem was largely ignored because addressing it would be expensive and hinder economic growth.

"This is a disaster caused by shoddy construction," said David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning at University College London.

WHY IS TURKEY A HOTSPOT FOR EARTHQUAKES?:Deadly earthquakes have hit Turkey before

Eyup Muhcu, president of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey, said many buildings that crumbled in the earthquake were built with inferior materials and methods, often not complying with construction standards.

"The building stock in the area was weak and not sturdy, despite the reality of earthquakes," Muhcu said.

Turkish president admits to slow government response

Government response to earthquakes in the country's southern regions was not as fast as authorities wanted, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, according to Al Jazeera.

"So many buildings were damaged that unfortunately, we were not able to speed up our interventions as quickly as we had desired," Erdogan said while visiting the hard-hit southern city of Adiyaman.

The day before, Erdogan conceded there were "shortcomings" in government disaster response, Al Jazeera reported.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Contact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.

Turkey, Syria earthquake updates: Death toll rises; search continues

The death toll surpassed 11,000 people across Turkey and Syria early Wednesday as the frantic search for survivors from two powerful earthquakes and a series of violent aftershocks continued.

The temblors on Monday toppled more than 6,000 buildings. In Turkey alone, more than 24,000 rescue workers from around the world were picking through mammoth heaps of debris seeking signs of life in a battle against time and pulling 8,000-plus people out of the rubble.

Amid the overwhelming suffering and destruction there were moments of joy, such as the rescue of several survivors under rubble for more than a day in the hard-hit Hatay province of Turkey, and the discovery of a newborn clinging to life while still attached to his dead mother's umbilical cord in northwest Syria.

But there was also a lot of despair and frustration that rescues are taking so long.

“It’s like we woke up to hell,” said Osman Can Taninmis, whose family members were still buried in debris in Hatay. “Help isn’t coming, can’t come. We can’t reach anyone at all. Everywhere is destroyed.”

Turkey’s emergency management agency said the country's death count has surpassed 5,400, with about 31,000 injured. An estimated 380,000 survivors have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels.

"We are facing one of the biggest disasters not only of the history of the Turkish Republic but also of ... the world," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

QUAKE DAMAGE:Photos capture devastating aftermath of powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake

HOW YOU CAN HELP: These groups are taking donations

Developments:

►Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization, said up to 23 million people could be affected in the entire area hit by the earthquake, calling it a “crisis on top of multiple crises.”

►Turkish Airlines said it shuttled 80 flights with almost 12,000 volunteers into the earthquake zone in southern Turkey on Tuesday. CEO Bilal Eksi said the flights would continue as long as necessary.

►The Palestinian Authority says 57 Palestinian refugees have died in the earthquake, 43 in Syria and 14 in Turkey.

►More than a dozen people in Turkey faced investigation for alleged “provocative” earthquake social media postings authorities said tried to foment “fear and panic,” local news media reported.

►Christian Atsu, a former striker with Chelsea and Newcastle in the British Premier League, was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building and being treated, the Ghana Football Association tweeted. Atsu, 31, signed with a Turkish team last year.

Baby rescued after being born under rubble

Residents digging through a collapsed building in northwest Syria discovered a crying baby whose mother appeared to have given birth while buried beneath the rubble, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday. The newborn girl’s umbilical cord was still connected to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who died in the collapse, they said.

The baby was the only member of her immediate family to survive in the small town of Jinderis, next to the Turkish border, Ramadan Sleiman, a relative, told The Associated Press.

The newborn, her umbilical cord still dangling after a neighbor cut it, was rushed to a hospital in the nearby town of Afrin and kept in an incubator. She had a large bruise on her back but was in stable condition, said Dr. Hani Maarouf, who was treating her.

Maarouf estimated the baby was born several hours before being found, given how much her temperature had dropped. “Had the girl been left for an hour more, she would have died,” he said.

Also in Jinderis, a toddler girl was found alive buried in concrete under the wreckage of her home.

California quakes not unlike those in Turkey

California and Turkey are not drastically different when it comes to earthquakes, except they should be more frequent in California, said Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer at the risk management firm Moody’s RMS. Earthquakes in Turkey are big, principally "strike-slip and on a broad plate boundary,” he said. Faults that move horizontally are known as strike-slip faults.

Earthquake residential insurance penetration in Turkey is higher than in California, but building code compliance is much better in California, Muir-Wood said.

"Such earthquakes should be at least twice as common in California," he said.

David Oglesby, a seismologist and professor of geophysics at the University of California-Riverside, pointed out the notorious San Andreas fault that crosses most of the state from north to south is also of the strike-slip variety.

Oglesby said buildings collapsing in a major earthquake are less of a danger in California than objects falling on people. He cited a 2008 study by the U.S. Geological Survey that estimated a magnitude 7.8 earthquake like Monday's would cause more than 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries and $200 billion in damage if it struck in Southern California.

"Downtown Los Angeles is built on a basin filled with soft sediment that would act like a bowl full of Jell-O in a big earthquake,'' Oglesby said. "It’s not a matter of if but when a quake of roughly this size hits Southern California. People need to take precautions and be prepared.''

30 hours after collapse, survivors freed from rubble

In Turkey's southernmost Hatay province, the Daily Sabah reported that a 16-year-old girl was rescued after being trapped under the debris of a five-story building for nearly 22 hours. Five more survivors were found in the downtown Antakya district nearly 30 hours after the quake. Rescue teams also dug out four other people in two separate piles of wreckage nearby. A few hours later, teams extricated a mother and her two daughters alive from under a building.

Crews also rescued a child and his big sister. Rescuers said they heard their cries of “I’m scared, I can’t get out” as workers rushed to free them.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said more than 1,600 people were killed in Hatay, the most of any of the 10 affected provinces and 30% of the Turkish total so far. Koca said more than 1,800 have been rescued but efforts to come to the victims' aid have been complicated by the airport closing after its runway was destroyed.

In Syria, no end in sight to suffering

In northwest Syria, the quake leveled towns in a region already under siege. Millions of people have been displaced by a civil war that has dragged on for more than a decade.

The death toll in Syria has exceeded 1,800 -- about 1,000 of them in the war-torn northwest region held by the opposition -- and the number was expected to rise. International sanctions have made rebuilding difficult amid the fighting, and the task just became more daunting.

The United Nations released $25 million from its emergency fund as part of the humanitarian response for both countries but faces large obstacles reaching those affected in northwest Syria.

For one, the road leading to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey -- the only one allowed for U.N. aid -- was damaged by the quake, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. In addition, the Hatay airport in southern Turkey is closed because of runway damage. Dujarric said the U.N. was preparing a convoy to cross the conflict lines within Syria.

And the conflict between the rebels and Bashar Assad's government in Damascus further complicates sending assistance, said Natasha Hall, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It is extremely logistically and administratively difficult to get the approvals (from Damascus),” she said. Coordination of aid is also hampered “because the government of Syria doesn’t recognize the non-governmental organizations working in northwest Syria.”

Electric, natural gas infrastructure severely damaged

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said the quakes severely damaged electricity and natural gas transmission and distribution lines. State pipeline operator BOTAŞ and major power supplier Enerjisa said they were examining and repairing damage around the clock “under very difficult weather and terrain conditions.”

Some repair work has been completed, yet some regions were not supplied with power for safety reasons, Engerjis said.

Turkey declares 3-month state of emergency

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 southern provinces. Flags were lowered to half-staff as the country observes seven days of national mourning. He said 13 million of the country’s 85 million people were affected in some way by the disaster.

"Our biggest relief is that over 8,000 of our citizens have been rescued from the rubble so far," Erdogan said.

Children among the most vulnerable

UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said its immediate focus is on ensuring children and families have access to safe drinking water and sanitation services, reuniting kids with families, providing "psychological first aid" and getting schools, now many of them being used for temporary housing, reopened. Displaced families in northwest Syria and Syrian refugee families living in Turkey in informal settlements are among the most vulnerable, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said.

"Communities are grappling with an ongoing cholera outbreak and heavy rain and snow," Elder said. "In this context, and one of more than a decade of conflict, this earthquake is utterly unbearable."

Wintry weather impedes search for the living

Attempts to reach survivors were hindered by temperatures near freezing and close to 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.

Nurgul Atay told The Associated Press she could hear her mother’s voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, but efforts to get into the ruins had been futile without any rescue crews and heavy equipment to help.

“If only we could lift the concrete slab we’d be able to reach her,” Atay said. “My mother is 70 years old; she won’t be able to withstand this for long.”

The relief operation often struggled to reach devastated towns, and voices that had been crying out from the rubble fell silent.

“We could hear their voices, they were calling for help,” said Ali Silo, whose two relatives could not be saved in the Turkish town of Nurdag.

PREVIOUSLY:Frantic search for survivors after massive earthquake rocks Turkey, Syria; Over 5,000 dead

Thousands left homeless

In Turkey’s Hatay province, thousands of people sheltered in sports centers or fair halls, while others spent the night outside, huddled in blankets around fires. In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a provincial capital about 20 miles southeast of the epicenter, people took refuge in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centers.

On the Syrian side, the affected area is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Strained medical centers overflowed with the wounded, rescue workers said. Some buildings remained standing but were no longer structurally sound and had to be emptied, including a maternity hospital, according to the Syrian American Medical Society.

"We’ve been receiving victims of the quake as they come in, all while simultaneously working to guarantee the well-being of our over 1,700 staff members in Syria, and the 90 at the epicenter near Gaziantep,” said Dr. Amjad Rass, the SAMS president.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Turkey, Syria earthquake survivors still being rescued

Justin Spike, Abdelrahman Shaheen and Suzan Fraser

The Associated Press

ANTAKYA, Turkey — Rescue crews on Saturday pulled more survivors, including entire families, from toppled buildings despite diminishing hopes as the death toll of the enormous quake that struck a border region of Turkey and Syria five days ago surpassed 25,000.

Dramatic rescues were being broadcast on Turkish television, including the rescue of the Narli family in central Kahramanmaras 133 hours after the 7.8-magnitude temblor struck Monday. First, 12-year-old Nehir Naz Narli was saved, then both of her parents.

That followed the rescue earlier in the day of a family of five from a mound of debris in the hard-hit town of Nurdagi, in Gaziantep province, TV network HaberTurk reported. Rescuers cheered and chanted, "God is Great!" as the last family member, the father, was lifted to safety.

EXPLAINED:130+ hours after Turkey, Syria earthquake, rescues continue. How long can people survive after a disaster?

Turkish President Recep Tayypi Erdogan, on a tour of quake-stricken cities, raised the death toll in Turkey to 21,848, which pushed the total number of dead across the region, including government and rebel-held parts of Syria, to 25,401.

Erdogan said a disaster of this scope is rare, affecting an area so large that is home to so many people. He referred to it as the "disaster of the century" and said it had affected an area 310 miles in diameter that is home to 13.5 million people in Turkey and an unknown number in Syria.

"In some parts of our settlements close to the fault line, we can say that almost no stone was left standing,'' he said earlier Saturday from Diyarbakir.

Still, the day brought one astonishing rescue after another, numbering more than a dozen.

100 YEARS OF EARTHQUAKES:Turkey, Syria disaster could be among this century's worst

Children among rescued survivors

Melisa Ulku, a woman in her 20s, was extricated from the rubble in Elbistan in the 132th hour since the quake, following the rescue of another person at the same site in the same hour. Ahead of her rescue, police announced that people shouldn't cheer or clap in order to not interfere with other rescue efforts nearby. She was covered in a thermal blanket on a stretcher. Rescuers were hugging. Some shouted "God is great!"

Just an hour earlier, a 3-year-old girl and her father were pulled from debris in the town of Islahiye, also in Gaziantep province, and soon after a 7-year-old girl was rescued in the province of Hatay.

The rescues brought shimmers of joy amid overwhelming devastation days after Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake and a powerful aftershock hours later caused thousands of buildings to collapse, killing nearly 26,000, injuring another 80,000 and leaving millions homeless.

Not everything ended so well. Rescuers reached a 13-year-old girl inside the debris of a collapsed building in Hatay province early Saturday and intubated her. But she died before the medical teams could amputate a limb and free her from the rubble, Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Even though experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the odds of finding more survivors were quickly waning amid freezing temperatures. Rescuers were shifting to thermal cameras to help identify life amid the rubble, a sign that any remaining survivors could be too weak to call for help.

HOW TO HELP:Relief efforts ongoing after deadliest earthquake in years

Injured treated in field hospital

As aid continued to arrive, a 99-member group from the Indian Army's medical assistance team began treating the injured in a temporary field hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun, where a main hospital was demolished.

One man, Sukru Canbulat, was wheeled into the hospital in a wheelchair, his left leg badly injured with deep bruising, contusions and lacerations.

Wincing in pain, he said he had been rescued from his collapsed apartment building in the nearby city of Antakya within hours of the quake on Monday. But after receiving basic first aid, he was released without getting proper treatment for his injuries.

"I buried (everyone that I lost), then I came here,'' Canbulat said, counting his dead relatives: "My daughter is dead, my sibling died, my aunt and her daughter died, and the wife of her son" who was 8 ½ months pregnant.

BABY BORN AMID RUBBLE:Newborn baby saved following birth under Syrian earthquake rubble, family says

Mass burials begin

A large makeshift graveyard was under construction on the outskirts of Antakya on Saturday. Backhoes and bulldozers dug pits in the field on the northeastern edge of the city as trucks and ambulances loaded with black body bags arrived continuously.

Soldiers directing traffic on the busy adjacent road warned motorists not to take photographs.

The hundreds of graves, spaced no more than 3 feet apart, were marked with simple wooden planks set vertically in the ground.

A worker with Turkey's Ministry of Religious Affairs who did not wish to be identified because of orders not to share information with the media said that around 800 bodies were brought the cemetery on Friday, its first day of operation. By midday on Saturday, he said, as many as 2,000 had been buried.

"People who are coming out from the rubble now, it's a miracle if they survive. Most of the people that come out now are dead, and they come here," he said.

Temperatures remained below freezing across the large region, and many people have no shelter. The Turkish government has distributed millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but is still struggling to reach many people in need.

OVER 25,000 DEAD:Death toll in Turkey, Syria among worst in history, surpassing 2011 Japan disaster

Parts of Syria isolated from aid

The disaster compounded suffering in a region beset by Syria's 12-year civil war, which has displaced millions of people within the country and left them dependent on aid. The fighting sent millions more to seek refuge in Turkey.

The conflict has isolated many areas of Syria and complicated efforts to get aid in. The United Nations said the first earthquake-related aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday, the day after an aid shipment planned before the disaster arrived.

The U.N. refugee agency estimated that as many as 5.3 million people have been left homeless in Syria.

President Bashar Assad and his wife have visited injured quake victims in a hospital in the coastal city of Latakia, a base of support for the Syrian leader.

Syrian state TV said Assad and his wife Asma on Saturday morning visited Duha Nurallah, 60, and her son Ibrahim Zakariya, 22, who were pulled out of rubble the night before in the nearby coastal town of Jableh.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, bringing with him 35 tons of medical equipment, state news agency SANA reported. He said another plane carrying an additional 30 tons of medical equipment will arrive in the coming days.

The opposition Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said Saturday that it "is almost impossible to find people alive."

The total death toll in Syria's northwestern rebel-held region has reached 2,166 many of them women and children. The total dead in Syria was 3,553, while in Turkey, officials counted 21,043 dead through Saturday.

Afghanistan earthquake: More than 1,000 people killed after ...

CNN —

Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country’s east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.

The humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.

The shocks hit at 1:24 a.m. local time on Wednesday (4:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday) around 46 kilometers (28.5 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, which lies close to the country’s border with Pakistan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

A man sits on the debris of a building after an earthquake in Paktika , Afghanistan on June 22. The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost and the death toll has risen to over 1000 people. Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23. Ebrahim Noroozi/AP An Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images A man carries supplies in an area affected by the earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23. Ali Khara/Reuters A child stands besides a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images Afghan people set up tents as a temporary shelters amid the ruins of houses damaged in the earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images Afghan men search for survivors amidst the debris of a house that was destroyed by an earthquake in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23. Ali Khara/Reuters A Taliban fighter stands guard next to a helicopter in Gayan, Afghanistan, on June 23. Ali Khara/Reuters An Afghan man stands besides a door of a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images A man stands near debris of a building after the quake shakes border provinces of Paktika, Afghanistan on June 23. Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A Taliban military helicopter flies over an earthquake-damaged area in the Paktika province, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images Children sit near their home that has been destroyed in an earthquake in the Spera District of southwest of the city of Khost, Afghanistan, on June 22. AP People help in search and rescue operations amid the debris of a building after the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22. Sardar Shafaq/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images A villager collects his belongings from under the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the earthquake in Afghanistan on June 22. AP An injured victim of the earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22. Stringer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Afghans evacuate wounded people in the province of Paktika, eastern Afghanistan, on June 22. AP Search and rescue operations continue after the earthquake on June 22. Sayed Khodaberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Taliban guards outside the district hospital where victims of the earthquake were brought in Paktia, Afghanistan, on June 22. Stringer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock An old man sits near his house that was destroyed in the earthquake on June 22. AP An ambulance assists earthquake victims on June 22. Stringer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock People queue up in a line to donate blood for the earthquake victims being treated at a hospital in Paktika, Afghanistan, on June 22. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images A girl stands near a house that was damaged by the earthquake on June 22. AP People sit outside a tent after their house was damaged in the earthquake on June 22. AP In photos: Deadly earthquake hits Afghanistan Prev Next

The quake registered at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to USGS, which designated it at yellow alert level – indicating a relatively localized impact.

Most of the deaths were in Paktika province, in the districts of Giyan, Nika, Barmal and Zirok, according to the State Ministry for Disaster Management.

The death toll stands at more than 1,000 and at least 1,500 people have been injured “in Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika province alone,” Mohammad Amin Hozaifa, head of Paktika province’s information and culture department, told CNN in a phone call Wednesday.

The official expects the number of casualties to rise as search and effort missions continue.

In this photo released by state-run news agency Bakhtar, Afghans evacuate the wounded following the quake in Paktika province, eastern Afghanistan. AP

In neighboring Khost province, 25 people were killed and several others were injured, and five people were killed in Nangarhar province, the disaster management authority said.

Photos from Paktika province, just south of Khost province, show houses turned to rubble with only a wall or two still standing amid the rubble, and broken roof beams.

Najibullah Sadid, an Afghan water resources management expert, said the earthquake had coincided with heavy monsoon rain in the region – making traditional houses, many made of mud and other natural materials, particularly vulnerable to damage.

“The timing of the earthquake (in the) dark of night … and the shallow depth of 10 kilometers of its epicenter led to higher casualties,” he added.

A team of medics and seven helicopters have been sent to the area to transport injured people to nearby hospitals, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense said in a tweet on Wednesday.

This comes as almost half the country’s population – 20 million people – are experiencing acute hunger, according to a United Nations-backed report in May. It is a situation compounded by the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, which led the United States and its allies freezing about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cutting off international funding.

The situation has crippled an economy already heavily dependent on aid. Following the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, its economy has gone into freefall with the World Bank forecasting in April that a “combination of declining incomes and increasing prices has driven a severe deterioration in household living standards.”

Many of the areas' traditional houses are made of mud and other natural materials, making them vulnerable to damage. Abdul Wahid Rayan

The earthquake hit at 1.24 a.m. about 46 kilometers southwest of the city of Khost. Pajhwok Afghan News

The Taliban held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to organize providing transportation to the injured and material aid to the victims and their families, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said.

Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund called the meeting at the country’s Presidential Palace to instruct all relevant agencies to send emergency relief teams to the affected area, Mujahid said in a tweet.

“Measures were also taken to provide cash assistance and treatment,” Mujahid said and added that agencies were “instructed to use air and land transport for the delivery of food, clothing, medicine and other necessities and for the transportation of the wounded.”

Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of State for Disaster Management, Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim, said Wednesday that “the Islamic Emirate will pay 100,000 AFN ($1,116.19) for the families of those who were killed in the earthquake and 50,000 ($558.10) will be paid to families of those injured.”

The government also highlighted the need for foreign aid.

“Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for the generous support of all countries international organizations individuals and foundations to provide and deliver urgent humanitarian aid,” a press statement from the country’s diplomatic missions read.

In a tweet on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its teams were on the ground for emergency response, including providing medicine, trauma services and conducting needs assessments.

But a WHO official told CNN’s Eleni Giokos that logistics were stretched. “All of the resources have been mobilized, not just from the nearby provinces but also from Kabul including medical supplies, medics, nurses, health workers, ambulances and emergency officers who are trained in dealing with such situations,” said Alaa AbouZeid, emergencies team lead and incident manager at WHO’s Afghanistan office.

“The situation is still evolving, and we are pushing more resources as the situation needs,” he said. “The resources are overstretched here, not just for this region, but we are expecting the situation to evolve in the coming hours.”

According to to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), heavy rain and wind is “hampering efforts with helicopters reportedly unable to land this afternoon.”

“Immediate needs identified include emergency trauma care, emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance and WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] support,” said the UNOCHA in a statement published Wednesday.

Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers help people affected by the eartquake in Giyan district. Abdul Wahid Rayan/Twitter

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended his condolences and an offer of support in a tweet on Wednesday. “Deeply grieved to learn about the earthquake in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of innocent lives,” he wrote. “People in Pakistan share the grief and sorrow of their Afghan brethren. Relevant authorities are working to support Afghanistan in this time of need.”

India expressed “sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families,” according to a tweet by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday.

Pope Francis said he was praying “for those who have lost their lives and for their families,” during his weekly audience on Wednesday. “I hope aid can be sent there to help all the suffering of the dear people of Afghanistan.”

Afghanistan has a long history of earthquakes, many of which happen in the mountainous Hindu Kush region that borders with Pakistan.

In 2015, a quake that shook parts of South Asia killed more than 300 people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

More than 1,000 people died in 2002 after two earthquakes in the Nahrin region of northwestern Afghanistan. A powerful earthquake struck the same region in the 1998, killing about 4,700 people, according to records from National Centers for Environmental Information.

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Turkey-Syria earthquake - in pictures | The Week UK

Survivors continue to be pulled from the rubble across southern Turkey and northern Syria after Monday’s earthquakes and aftershocks.

The “frantic rescue effort” continued through the night and into a third day following “one of the region’s worst disasters in decades”, said the Financial Times (FT).

The death toll has risen to more than 11,000 and is expected to increase significantly as more victims are found.

“More than 10,000 people are involved in rescue operations,” said the FT, “but freezing weather conditions, snow and damaged infrastructure have made it challenging to transport heavy machinery, personnel and aid.”

The 7.8-magnitude quake is “already one of the deadliest of the 21st century”, but “glimmers of hope” have “punctuated the despair”, said The Washington Post.

China earthquake: Death toll rises to 65 in Sichuan as aftershocks ...

CNN —

At least 65 people are confirmed dead after an earthquake hit China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Monday, according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

Aftershocks were still being felt on Tuesday, state media said, a day after the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said a 6.6-magnitude quake shook the region southwest of Sichuan’s capital Chengdu around 1 p.m. Monday.

So far 248 injuries have been reported and at least 12 people remain missing, according to state media.

Images showed rescue workers carrying injured residents over makeshift bridges in Luding County, near the quake’s epicenter.

Rescuers transfer injured people in Luding county, Ganzi prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, Sept 5, 2022. CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images

The USGS said quake’s epicenter was about 43 kilometers (27 miles) southeast of Kangding, a city of around 100,000 people. Over a million residents in surrounding areas are estimated to have experienced moderate tremors in the aftermath of the quake, it added.

Some homes were severely damaged in the quake, with images appearing to show whole buildings had collapsed into piles of bricks and wooden beams.

Houses collapse in Luding county, Ganzi prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, Sept 5, 2022. CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images

China activated a Level 3 emergency response and dispatched rescue workers to Luding County on Monday, according to China’s State Council. Chinese broadcaster CGTN said rescue workers were helping to clear roads blocked by landslides triggered by the quake.

Sichuan, a province of 84 million people, was already facing a very challenging summer before the powerful quake. In the last two months, the province has endured drought and its worst heatwaves in 60 years.

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The landlocked area is prone to earthquakes because of the Langmenshan Fault which runs through Sichuan’s mountains.

A 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan in 2008 was one of the country’s most devastating. Almost 90,000 people were killed and tremors were felt in cities more than 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) away.

Last year, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan, killing three people and injuring 60, according to state media at the time.

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Afghanistan earthquake: 'What do we do when another disaster hits ...

CNN —

Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people in an area blighted by poor infrastructure, as the country faces dire economic and hunger crises.

The slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. “This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term… what do we do when (another disaster) hits?” he told CNN by phone.

The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were flimsily made out of wood, mud and other materials vulnerable to damage.

Humanitarian agencies are converging on the area, but its remote location has complicated rescue efforts.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has successfully dispatched humanitarian aid and assistance to families in Paktika and Khost provinces to cover the needs of about 4,000 people, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a Thursday press briefing.

Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the “priority needs include emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance, health and water and sanitation, as well as hygiene support.”

He added that the World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed stocks of food will be able to serve at least 14,000 in the hardest-hit Paktika province.

“At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units,” a WFP statement released Thursday said.

UNICEF Afghanistan tweeted that they were able to distribute “hygiene kits, winter kits, emergency family kitchen kits, tents, blankets, warm clothes and tarpaulin” to affected individuals in Paktika and Khost.

Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23. Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

The quake coincided with heavy monsoon rain and wind between June 20 and 22, which has hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.

As medics and emergency staff from around the country attempt to access the site, help is expected to be limited as a number of organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban took power in August last year.

Those that remain are stretched thin. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized “all of the resources” from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. But, as one WHO official put it, “the resources are overstretched here, not just for this region.”

‘Very bleak’

The international community’s hesitancy to deal with the Taliban and the group’s “very messy bureaucracy where it becomes difficult to gain information from one source” has led to a communication gap in the rescue efforts, Baheer – who is also the founder of aid group Save Afghans from Hunger – said.

“At the core of everything is how the politics has translated into this gap of communication, not just between countries and the Taliban, but international aid organizations and the Taliban as well,” he added.

Baheer gives an example of how he has been acting as a conduit of information with the WFP and other aid organizations, informing them that Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense were offering to airlift aid from humanitarian organizations to badly hit areas.

In the meantime, some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble.

Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP deputy country director in Afghanistan, described the situation on the ground as “very bleak,” where some the villages in heavily affected districts “are completely decimated or 70% are collapsed,” she said.

Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images

“There will be months and potentially years of building back,” she said. “The needs are so much more massive than just food… It could be shelter for example, to be able to facilitate the movement of that food as well as the customs clearance, logistics would be helpful.”

Officials say aid is reaching the affected areas.

The government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense’s official Twitter account. Medical and relief teams deployed by the Afghan government are already present in the quake-hit areas, and attempting to transport the wounded to medical facilities and health centers by land and air, it added.

‘Carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people’

Although the economic crisis in Afghanistan has loomed for years, the result of conflict and drought, it plunged to new depths after the Taliban takeover, which prompted the United States and its allies to freeze about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cut off international funding.

The US no longer has a presence in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal of its troops and collapse of the previous US-backed Afghan government. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government.

Sanctions have crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Millions of Afghans are out of work, government employees haven’t been paid, and the price of food has soared.

Humanitarian aid is excluded from sanctions, but there are impediments, according to draft remarks by Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of a UN Security Council in the situation in Afghanistan.

This includes a major need in funding, Taliban authorities “seeking to play a role in the selection of beneficiaries and channeling assistance to people on their own priority lists,” and the “formal banking system continues to block transfers,” he writes.

This means “around 80% of organizations (who responded to OCHA’s monitoring survey) are facing delays in transferring funds, with two thirds reporting that their international banks continue to deny transfers. Over 60% of organizations cite lack of available cash in-country as a programmatic impediment.”

A child stands beside a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images

Baheer says sanctions “are hurting us so much” that Afghans are struggling to send money to families affected by the earthquake.

“The fact that we barely have a banking system, the fact that we haven’t had new currency printed or brought into the country in the past nine to 10 months, our assets are frozen… these sanctions don’t work,” he said.

He added: “The only sanctions that make moral sense is targeted sanctions on specific individuals rather than carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people.”

While “sanctions have affected a lot of the country, there’s an exemption for humanitarian aid so we’re getting it in to support those most in need,” Mort, from UNICEF, told CNN.

The Taliban “isn’t preventing us from distributing anything like that, on the contrary they are enabling us,” she added.

Experts and officials say the most pressing immediate needs include medical care and transportation for the injured, shelter and supplies for the displaced, food and water, and clothing.

An Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake. Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP/Getty Images

The UN has distributed medical supplies and sent mobile health teams to Afghanistan – but warned that it does not have search and rescue capabilities.

Baheer told CNN on Wednesday that the Taliban were only able to send out six rescue helicopters “because when the United States was leaving it disabled most of the aircraft whether it belonged to Afghanistan forces or to them.”

Pakistan has offered to help, opening border crossings in its northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa and allowing injured Afghans to come into the country visa-free for treatment, according Mohammad Ali Saif, a regional government spokesperson.

“400 injured Afghans have moved into Pakistan this morning for treatment and a stream of people is continuing, these numbers are expected to rise by the end of day, Saif told CNN.

Pakistan has kept a tight limit on Afghans entering the country via the land border crossing since the Taliban took power.

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