A month after the tragedy, the UN described the scenes in Hatay province, the worst affected in the country, as “apocalyptic”. More than 52,000 people died in Turkey and Syria from the February earthquakes.
The material damage caused by the earthquake in Turkey “exceeds 100,000 million dollars”, according to an estimate by the World Bank, the UN, the European Union (EU) and the Turkish government.
A month after the tragedy, Louisa Vinton, head of Turkey for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), described the scenes in the province of Hatay, the most affected in Turkey, as “apocalyptic”, and said that hundreds of thousands of houses were destroyed. “The needs are enormous, but the resources are scarce,” she added.
The World Bank had previously estimated the damage in Turkey at around $34.2 billion.
More than 52,000 people died in Turkey and Syria from the February 6 earthquakes. Many were crushed or buried in their sleep.
The provisional damage figure, which Vinton says covers only Turkey, is being used as the basis for a donors’ conference in Belgium on March 16 that will seek to mobilize funds for quake victims.
