Earth Science News
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
'Are we going to die?': Trauma haunts Turkish kids after quake
'Are we going to die?': Trauma haunts Turkish kids after quake
By Fulya OZERKAN
Kahramanmaras, Turkey (AFP) Feb 13, 2023

Serkan Tatoglu is haunted by the question his six-year-old keeps asking since their house collapsed in last week's earthquake in Turkey.

"Are we going to die?" she wonders, while looking up at scenes reminiscent of an apocalyptic movie set.

Coffins line roadsides, and ambulance sirens wail around the clock.

Walking through the rubble of flattened buildings, children watch as rescue workers lift body bags from the putrid-smelling debris.

Tatoglu helped his four children -- aged between six and 15 -- escape their house after the first 7.8-magnitude tremor rattled southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria before dawn on February 6.

Their building crumbled in one of the nearly 3,000 aftershocks. More than 35,000 have died across the region and the toll is likely to keep climbing for days.

Tatoglu lost nearly a dozen relatives.

But the 41-year-old knows he has to stand strong in the face of his unbearable heartache.

Tatoglu's first job is to shield his children from the horrors that keep popping into their heads as they wait out the aftershocks in a tent city near the quake's epicentre in southern Kahramanmaras.

"The youngest, traumatised by the aftershocks, keeps asking: 'Dad, are we going to die?'" Tatoglu said.

"She keeps asking about our relatives. I don't show them their dead bodies. My wife and I hug them and say 'everything is alright'."

- 'I can't do anything' -

Psychologist Sueda Deveci of the Doctors Worldwide Turkey volunteer organisation said adults need as much emotional support as children in the aftermath of such a tragedy.

She said older generations were quicker to internalise the profound scale of how much their lives have changed -- and just how much they have lost.

"One mother told me: 'Everyone tells me to be strong, but I can't do anything. I can't take care of my kids, I can't eat'," Deveci said while working in the tent city.

Deveci is gaining better insight into what the children are feeling from what they draw as they while away the time in the cold.

"I don't talk to them about the earthquake much. We are drawing. We will see how much of it is reflected in their drawings," she said.

For now, their art is mostly normal.

Child rights expert Esin Koman said this was because children adapt to their surroundings more quickly than adults.

But she added that the quake's destruction of existing social support networks left them dangerously exposed to long-term trauma.

"Some children have lost their families. There is nobody now to provide them with mental support," Koman said.

-'Where's my mum?'-

Psychologist Cihan Celik posted one exchange on Twitter he had with a paramedic involved in rescue work.

The paramedic told Celik that kids pulled from the rubble almost immediately asked about their missing parents.

"The wounded children ask: 'Where's my mum, where's my dad? Are you kidnapping me?'," the paramedic recalled.

Turkey's vice president Fuat Oktay said 574 children pulled from collapsed buildings were found without any surviving parents.

Only 76 had been returned to other family members.

One voluntary psychologist working in a children's support centre in Hatay province -- where the level of destruction was some of the worst in Turkey -- said numerous parents were frantically looking for missing kids.

"We receive a barrage of calls about missing children," Hatice Goz said by phone from Hatay province.

"But if the child still cannot speak, the family is unable to find them."

- Happy thoughts -

Selma Karaaslan is trying her hardest to keep her two grandchildren safe.

The 52-year-old has been living with them in a car parked along one of the debris-strewn roads of Kahramanmaras ever since the quake struck.

Karaaslan tries to talk to them about anything but the quake. She figures that they are much less likely to have haunting memories of the disaster if she fills their heads with happy thoughts.

But the questions still come.

"Grandma, will there be another earthquake?" the six-year-old demanded at one point.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
UN Security Council meets on aid to quake-hit Syria
United Nations, United States (AFP) Feb 13, 2023
The UN Security Council meets behind closed doors Monday to address ways to boost humanitarian assistance to Syria following the devastating recent earthquake, amid growing calls to open new border crossings to deliver aid. The meeting requested by Switzerland and Brazil - the United Nations co-leaders on the Syria humanitarian file - will feature a presentation to council members by UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths, who this weekend visited Turkey and Syria where anger over the pace ... read more

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Syria to open 2 crossings for quake aid; Assad pleads for help as Saudi aid plane lands

NASA's satellites help with Turkey, Syria earthquake response

'Are we going to die?': Trauma haunts Turkish kids after quake

UN Security Council meets on aid to quake-hit Syria

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
High efficiency mid- and long-wave optical parametric oscillator pump source and its applications

Automating the math for decision-making under uncertainty

Understanding laser accelerated electron radiation through terahertz emissions

Turkey's once mighty developers under fire after quake

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Engineers devise a modular system to produce efficient, scalable aquabots

Chicken of the sea

How did ancient extreme climate affect sand in the deep sea?

Biosensors change the way water contamination is detected

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Researchers build more detailed picture of the movement of Greenland Ice Sheet

Antarctic ice hits record low for January: climate monitor

Glacial flooding threatens millions globally

More frequent atmospheric rivers hinder seasonal recovery of Arctic sea ice

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Super Bowl snack hurting Colombian farmers, environment

Plant diversity may never fully recover from agriculture without a helping hand

South Africa's largest rhino farm puts itself up for sale

Researchers use water treatment method to capture acids from agricultural waste

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Asphalt volcano communities

S.Africa declares national disaster as floods kill 7

Once home to civilisations, fabled Antioch left in ruins

Mozambique floods kill four in capital area

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Somaliland accuses Somalia of attacks despite truce

Kenyan troops crackdown on bandits; Mass trial opens in Chad; 19 killed in Burkina

Mass trial opens in Chad over ex-strongman's death

19 killed in Burkina attacks

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Changing climate conditions likely facilitated human migrations to the Americas

People can tell whether they like a song within seconds, study finds

The chemistry of mummification - Traces of a global network

Superhighways of first Australians reveals a 10,000-year journey through the continent

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.