Last Monday morning, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake followed by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria causing major damage and killing upwards of 33,000 people across the two countries. Later, a second earthquake hit and was recorded to be a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Since then, buildings have been utterly destroyed and many are still trapped underneath all of the rubble. 

The earthquakes hit early in the morning in an area that had not been hit by an earthquake in a very long time, and the buildings were clearly not sustainable enough to withstand the shaking. 

“Of the deadliest earthquakes in any given year, only two in the last 10 years have been of equivalent magnitude, and four in the previous 10 years,” Professor Joanna Walker of University College London said in a BBC article. 

Since the earthquake first hit, videos of rescues have circulated on the internet of survivors being pulled out from underneath the rubble, yet there have only been a handful of people that have been saved. Some people, like 11-year-old Lena Maradini, was trapped for over 160 hours before she was saved. Photos of the destroyed cities have shown how destructive and powerful the earthquakes were. 

However, one bright story to come out of this is that donations across the world have poured into these countries reaching staggering numbers. The Turkish embassy in the United States has boxes upon boxes of donations, which is a hopeful sight to see for a country that needs it so badly. Also, a Pakistani donator who chose to remain anonymous donated 30 million dollars to the earthquake victims. 

While the donations to the rescue aid have been plentiful in numbers, the destruction of the earthquakes and all of its aftershocks have still ruined the lives of millions of people. Simply fixing some of the destroyed infrastructure could cost Turkey up to roughly 84 billion dollars, and even then that number is expected to go up just as the death toll most likely will. 

So keep the people of Turkey and Syria in your minds and prayers as they continue to deal with this crisis. You can donate to places like Human Appeal USA or UNICEF if you wish to help out these countries because this recovery will take much longer than expected.