A week after the earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, there are still stories of miracles. But they are rare.
In the town of Nurdağı, after being trapped beneath the rubble for five days, six people were pulled out alive.
That gave rescuers hope.
On Saturday night, a text message came from under the rubble. Thirteen people are trapped in a pocket, but they are still alive.
On the surface, search teams work frantically to save them, knowing the clock is ticking.
They dig and dig, and pause every half hour, when the search site goes completely silent.
Someone shouts from the surface "can you hear me".
Nothing. Hope fades. The dig resumes.
"It is like the end of the world for us" one Turkish woman tells me. Nobody lives in any of the buildings here anymore.
"It is like the end of the world for us" one Turkish woman tells me. Nobody lives in any of the buildings here anymore. pic.twitter.com/gV6mql8hej
— Justin McCarthy (@MrJustinMac) February 12, 2023
As we watched the heroic efforts of the rescue workers, there was another sign that hope was fading.
They lifted a flat concrete slab and stopped. Someone called for a blanket.
The workers paused briefly and put a hand on their chest. A silent prayer was said as another body was wrapped in the blanket and taken swiftly away.
Another blanket, another body, another family heartbroken.
In the town of Nurdagi no building is safe, everybody has moved out on to the streets or to other cities #turkeysyriaearthquake pic.twitter.com/DJLucnFNiC
— Justin McCarthy (@MrJustinMac) February 12, 2023
Nurdağı is a large town, about the size of Naas. The entire population now lives on the street, or they have moved to other cities in Turkey.
There is a desolate feeling as you walk down the main street. You can see shops, restaurants abandoned, ruined.
A building owned by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's political party is flattened.
Houses and apartments everywhere are either cracked, some with gaping holes, or are destroyed.
There is no safe building in the town.
Amongst the rubble you can see the packaging from a child's new doll, the pillow from a child’s bed. So many children among the dead, and so many more now living on the streets. #turkeyearthquake2023 pic.twitter.com/kVUDJLCbyq
— Justin McCarthy (@MrJustinMac) February 12, 2023
Among the rubble you can see children's toys, the packaging from a new doll, a child’s pillow.
Evidence of happy innocent lives now shattered.
On the side of the road, sitting at a campfire we meet Ayse, a young English teacher. She came to be with her family after the quake.
Her uncle Ziya, aunt Meltem, and their two little boys Miraç and Emir were all killed.
"He was a policeman and so, so kind, he only wanted to do good things," she tells us.
She has photos of all four of them, a young family wiped out.
Her uncle paid for her education, her training to become an English teacher.
Now she plans to establish a scholarship in his name so that another child can benefit from an education.
Nearby, we meet Ali, a Syrian refugee who was trapped in the rubble for hours before he was rescued by his neighbour.
There were eight people in his house when the earthquake hit, but only seven of them made it out alive. His 14-year-old daughter was killed.
This is Ali, from Syria. When the quake struck on Monday he was trapped under the rubble at his home here for hours before his neighbour pulled him out. His 14 year old daughter didn't make it. #TurkeySyriaEarthquake pic.twitter.com/tNyrIiJYgc
— Justin McCarthy (@MrJustinMac) February 12, 2023
Grieving her loss, and dealing with the destruction of his home takes its toll. He returns to the site every day to feed his cat which refuses to leave.
Nurdağı is in ruins. There is a smell of smoke and fuel and death there.
It is just one of hundreds of towns affected, and the people there wonder if it will ever recover, if life will ever be normal again.
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