WHO Warns Of “Secondary Disaster” After Earthquakes

Politico Europe reports:

The death toll from a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria is likely to “double or more” from its current level of 33,000, United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths told Sky News.

“I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double or more,” said Griffiths after traveling to the city of Kahramanmaras in Turkey, the epicenter of the first earthquake. “We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead,” he said.

The estimate would take the tally of deaths to around three times the 17,118 dead following the huge earthquake in northwestern Turkey in 1999.

CNN reports

Survivors of Monday’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria could face “a secondary disaster” as cold and snow lead to “worsening and horrific conditions,” the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today. Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, WHO incident response manager Robert Holden warned there were “a lot of people” surviving “out in the open, in worsening and horrific conditions.”

“We’ve got major disruptions to basic water supplies, we’ve got major disruption to fuel, electricity supplies, communication supplies, the basics of life,” Holden said. “We are in real danger of seeing a secondary disaster which may cause harm to more people than the initial disaster if we don’t move with the same pace and intensity as we are doing on the search and rescue side,” Holden added.

More than 23,000 people have been killed after the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday.

The WHO says survivors could face “a secondary disaster” as the cold leads to “worsening conditions.”

Meanwhile there’s frustration at the slow delivery of aid to north Syria. pic.twitter.com/dJa9TtmAGg

— Go Radio (@thisisgoradio) February 11, 2023

Hunt for survivors continues amid WHO warning over ‘secondary disaster’ pic.twitter.com/DUNZBjoKwK

— SW News (@shalomworldnews) February 11, 2023