Description
Monday morning 6th February (4.17am local time), its tremor could be felt as far afield as Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. A second quake, which recorded a magnitude of 7.5, struck just 9 hours later. The worst hit provinces lost many buildings, but also lost their Police, Fire and rescue services, hospitals and schools, so the residents were very much on their own.
Removal of rubble from collapsed buildings is now underway on a massive scale, and amongst the rumble of over 11,000 aftershocks large heavyweight trucks remove the rubble. Former residents that are able wait for their buildings to be cleared hoping to salvage any of their belongings, collapsed banks are under guard by staff and military to see if any safe’s survived and money can be salvaged.
First Appeal
Originally, we asked for clothes, especially warm winter ones and the JQ responded brilliantly for aid, and those clothes reached Turkey a while ago. Even if only one life was saved from the bitter cold at the time and we brought a little comfort to many more it was worth it!
Please no more clothes for now – according to the Turkish Embassy so many countries have supplied clothes etc they are totally overloaded, and it’s a similar story in the UK – the clothing collection points are full to the brim of clothing. When this changes we will do another clothing collection but NOT until we know the clothing can reach Turkey.
Second Appeal
However, this is a disaster that will need aid of all sorts for a long time, and The Hockley Flyer is raising funds in conjunction with the Acapella Bar at 50 Frederick Street for a journey to Turkey where we will be purchasing supplies and taking them ourselves into the 10 provinces so seriously damaged by the Earthquakes. I have personally been asked to go but sadly not able to although feel I  can probably help more from here. The trip is just under a month long starting around the first week of April 2023. Our plans are to fly to Turkey and hire a suitable vehicle to take essential supplies to those in most need by meeting them and asking and also to visit many make-shift schools and give a little joy to the children so badly affected by this massive disaster.
Obviously, we can’t help everyone, but if we can help some of the worst off it will be worthwhile.
Help so far Second Appeal!
A fuel company has already pledged fuel vouchers for £100 and the vehicle hire company in Turkey said we were limited in mileage but since explaining what we were going to do have increased our mileage on the rental by such an amount we should be able to drive in and out of all 10 provinces to places where essential supplies are still readily available to purchase even if that involves many miles of travel and bring them back to the badly hit zones. This was arranged by our contacts in Turkey.
Friday 24th February the Acapella bar held a fund raising event and raised £2,269, plus donations into a bottle on the bar. Help us please if you can.
This is a rough draft of our trip and will be updated several times, but gives an idea of what we intend….
We will also be looking at supplying aid to Syria from Turkey but will probably have to work with those with better knowledge than us.
Facts and Figures for Turkey: as of March 1st, 2023
- Over 45,000 people dead because of the Earthquakes.
- Over 108,000 people injured.
- Over 202,000 buildings collapsed or so severely damaged will or presently being demolished.
- Over 11,000 aftershocks, including two large ones now classified as earthquakes in their own right. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake and a second measuring 5.8 hit Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, which killed 6 people and injured another 600 two weeks after the first ones.
- 203 people arrested as suspects over the collapse of so many buildings.
