Eight people, buried in rubble for over a week, are rescued. (Turkey)

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

After nearly 200 hours entombed in the rubble of a collapsed building in southeastern Turkey, an 18-year-old man was pried free by rescuers on Tuesday morning, becoming the third such improbable rescue of the day over a week after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake leveled towns, killed tens of thousands of people and displaced many more in Turkey and Syria.

By late Tuesday, five more people had been rescued — bright spots in one of the bleakest periods in memory for Turkey, which has lost more than 35,000 people to the quake since it shook the region early on Feb. 6. Relief organizations say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are a crucial time period for finding survivors.

Turkey’s National Defense Department and national broadcasters shared footage of the rescues amid mounting anxiety over the vast number of people left homeless and hungry, the arrests of contractors suspected of bearing some responsibility for the collapsed buildings, and the politically loaded recriminations over who should shoulder the blame.

In the devastated city of Adiyaman, the footage showed, the bright red and yellow hard hats and vests of aid workers surrounding the man, Muhammed Cafer Cetin, contrasted with his dust-caked skin and hair.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/14/world/middleeast/turkey-earthquake-rescue.html

[maxsolomon]

1. Amazing.

Must have been right on the edge of dying of dehydration.

[Warpy]

2. Lots of snow in the area

Melting snow could have saved them. People have been resuced from quakes and building collapses after many days if there has been a source of water for them, rain, broken pipes, or snow. Otherwise, the maximum survival is 5 days and they'll be on dialysis after 3 or 4.

Dialysis after dehydration is usually temporary. Dehydrated kidneys shurt down, but they generally recover, especially in the young.

IOW, the people might have been found alive, but they were in bad shape.

[Richard D]

3. I pray . . .

. . . that they can find their way back to sanity. I can't even imagine.