DISPATCHES FROM HELL

From a terrified mom to brave rescue workers, these South Africans tell of being caught up in the tragedy of the Türkiye earthquakes 

- NOKUTHULA ZWANE-EJIKE

THE pictures and footage are nothing short of gut-wrenching. The grief of people robbed of loved ones, the desperation of rescue workers searching through rubble, the bewilderment of families living in makeshift camps after being ripped from their homes – the litany goes on and on.

More than 46 000 people lost their lives when two earthquakes struck a vast region of Türkiye and Syria on the freezing morning of 6 February, destroying cities and towns and affecting millions of people already reeling from the effects of war and an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis.

South Africans have also been affected by the disaster – some are survivors living in Türkiye, others are rescue workers who went to help in the aftermath of the disaster.

YOU spoke to some of them who gave harrowing first-hand accounts of the hell that descended on the area.

MICHELLE ARSLAN
SOUTH AFRICAN LIVING IN TÜRKIYE

The family’s apartment building in Kahramanmaraş – a city near the epicenter of the quake – started shaking at 4.15 am. Michelle, an English teacher originally from Worcester in the Western Cape who’s married to a Turkish man and has been in the country for the past three years, says the terror was indescribable.

“My cat, Miss Mable, jumped onto the bed with me and the bed started bouncing. I instantly knew it was an earthquake. I woke up my husband and my son immediately.

“I kept thinking we have to stay calm and think clearly. I kept thinking we mustn’t panic, because when you panic things go wrong.”