The death toll rises as rescue teams search for survivors

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The death toll from this week’s massive earthquakes and aftershocks in Syria and Turkey surpassed 21,700 on Friday, as hope of finding survivors trapped under collapsed buildings began to fade.

The big picture: Freezing winter conditions and the sheer scale of destruction hampered rescue efforts for several days after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake.

The number of earthquake-related deaths recorded now is greater than the 2011 earthquake that rocked Japan and triggered a tsunami, killing nearly 20,000 people and causing the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Robert Holden, director of incident response at the World Health Organization, told a news conference. In Geneva Thursday, “many” of the survivors were “out in the open, in deteriorating and appalling conditions” with “significant disruptions” to access to fuel, water, electricity and communications supplies, “according to CNN.” A secondary disaster may cause harm to more people than the primary disaster if we do not move at the same pace and intensity as we do on the search and rescue side.”

In numbers: Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority confirmed on Friday that the country’s earthquake death toll rose to 18,342 and that 74,242 people were injured in the disaster.

On Thursday, Syrian state media said that at least 1,347 people were killed and more than 2,295 others were injured in government-controlled areas. Opposition-held areas – Bringing the country’s earthquake death toll to at least 3,377, and the total death toll to more than 21,700. /Twitter

Enlarge: The US State Department said in a statement on Thursday that at least three US citizens were among those killed in Turkey, noting that its staff was working to help the families of the victims.

“We are working closely with local authorities and other partner organizations to assist any US citizen in the affected areas,” the statement added. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday that the United States will provide $85 million in urgent humanitarian aid in addition to the hundreds of individuals deployed to the region since Monday. On Thursday, the Treasury Department issued Syrian General License (GL) 23, which allows for 180 days “all transactions related to earthquake relief that were prohibited under the Syrian sanctions regulations.”

State of play: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in the quake-ravaged provinces.

In opposition-held areas of northwest Syria, where millions of people displaced by the war live in densely populated towns, the devastation will exacerbate other humanitarian and economic crises that people in the region are already facing. For the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have been displaced by nearly 12 years of war.

Go deeper: Satellite images from Turkey and Syria capture the devastation left by the earthquake

Editor’s note: This story is evolving and will be updated.

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