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Rescuers push to find survivors of “disaster of the century”

Rescuers pulled out a man from a collapsed building 87 hours after the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Thousands who lost their homes in a catastrophic earthquake huddled around campfires and clamored for food and water in the bitter cold, three days after the temblor and series of aftershocks hit Turkey and Syria. ( IHA via AP)
Rescuers pulled out a man from a collapsed building 87 hours after the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Thousands who lost their homes in a catastrophic earthquake huddled around campfires and clamored for food and water in the bitter cold, three days after the temblor and series of aftershocks hit Turkey and Syria. ( IHA via AP)

By JUSTIN SPIKE, GHAITH ALSAYED and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY / Associated Press 7 min read

CORRECTION: This story was updated on Feb. 10 to state Ankara as the capital of Turkey.

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KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey (AP) — Rescue workers made a final push Thursday to find survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria that rendered many communities unrecognizable to their inhabitants and led the Turkish president to declare it “the disaster of the century.” The death toll topped 20,000.

The earthquake affected an area that is home to 13.5 million people in Turkey and an unknown number in Syria and stretches farther than the distance from London to Paris or Boston to Philadelphia. Even with an army of people taking part in the rescue effort, crews had to pick and choose where to help.

The scene from the air showed the scope of devastation, with entire neighborhoods of high-rises reduced to twisted metal, pulverized concrete and exposed wires.